CPM

2 downloads 159 Views 42MB Size Report
ChurchPres – a free WordPress-powered web- site with 3 GB ... $25/month. • WorthyofPraise.org – free website hosti
CONTENTS Articles

cle Tap the arti to it. to be taken

Publisher’s Note Preaching with Power Exclusive Interview with Peter Jeffery Sex-Trafficking: Human Trafficking is a Serious Crime

Sex Trafficking

Responding To The Cultural Rhythm How To Pick A Fight So This Is What It Feels Like To Get In The Big Game How To Pick a Fight

Video Interviews A Lifestyle of Planting:

BRIAN BORDERSEN Managing Difficult People

Team Planting

WIMPS Need Not Apply

Peter Jeffrery: Preaching with Power

A Culture of Internship in the Church Online Giving

In a Church Plant:

Do Something Reawakening a Potent Missional Ethos in the 21st Centry Church

MARK CONVOY I Was There: Dealing with the Aftermath of a Mass Shooting:

The Question That Never Goes Away Online Giving

JOEL WHEELERSBURG SHARE CHRISTMAS

Where to Build a Free Church Website

Once Upon A Sled Dog Race...

When is it Time To Quit? Once Upon a Sled Dog Race The Meaning of Life in 600 Words A Secret Strategy Used to Generate More Money For Church Plants

The One About When You Should Quit



So you’re planting a church?

In the immortal words of church planter

Dai Hankey, “Why plant a church when you

can just hit yourself in the head with a hammer!”

With as tough as it is going to be, there

will be times when you get to see the mas-

sive grace of God poured into someone’s life.

One of the biggest problems faced all over the world is human slavery



Many Americans don’t realize that slavery and sex trafficking is

and sex trafficking. All. Over. The. World. Yes, even here in the US.

such a big problem that the FBI has a unit dedicated to this very issue. In fact, after a multi-state raid in July, that resulted in more than 150

arrests and over 105 children rescued, Ronald Hosko, assistant director of the FBI’s criminal division stated, child sex trafficking remains “one of the most prevalent, violent and unconscionable crimes in our country.”

So why church plant? For one, it is a great way to combat sex

trafficking and slavery. Patrick Hubbard of Living Bread Ministries

spells out how church plants can be used to combat sex trafficking in his article, “Sex-Trafficking: Human Trafficking Is A Serious Crime.”

Always remember, if you want to do what no one else is doing, you

have to go where no one else is going and do what no one else is doing.

A Co-laborer in Christ,

Pete Mitchell P.S. For weekly tips and church planting coolness, check out the Church Planter Podcast (Tap the image on the right)

PRESENTS:

ExclusiveInterview InterviewWith With Exclusive

JOEL WHEELERSBURG JOEL MEYER

By Peyton Jones

JOEL is a Pastor at Calvary Chapel Aurora. He, members of his family, JOELWHEELERSBURG MEYER planted Port Loyola Calvary Chapel in Belize. He and his family live and and 50 others from his church where at the midnight showing of Batman on July 20, 2012 minister in a virtual war zone as gangs continue to murder those he's sharing the gospel when a man entered the theater with tear gas and multiple guns. 12 people were killed. 70 with, and at times… right in front of them. others were injured. How would you respond if you were there? This is how Joel and this group of Christians did.

Connect with Joel:

Connect with JOEL :

CPM - We’re privileged to be sitting here with Peter Jeffery. Peter’s been a Pastor of three congregations, and has had a world wide preaching ministry. Peter was a protege of Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and once minister of legendary Bethlehem “Sandfields” Church, Aberavon, Port Talbot, Wales, UK. Largely unknown to our any in ourAmerican audience, Peter Jeffery is a bit of a preaching legend in the UK, and the author of over 30 books, including The Christian Handbook, Bite-Size Theology, You Can’t Fool God, and Windows on Truth. Paul had many things in the books of 1st and 2nd Timothy that he was trying to pass on; wisdom, advice, a few things that Timothy needed to know. Equipment that he needed to take hold of and learn to use. So we’re here today to do that and to ask Peter Jeffery, who has served faithfully over 50 years in the pulpit, and mentored a handful of young ministers, what ad-

vice he would pass down to this generation of preachers. CPM - Lloyd Jones called preaching a romance and he entitled a chapter of his book on preaching, The Romance of Preaching. Can you briefly summarize your romance with the pulpit over the course of your preaching. Peter - Well yes ,I think it’s a very apt title. The thing about preaching is that you never know what’s going to happen when you start. I think the Doctor said once that, Doctor Lloyd Jones, you never got a clue what’s going to happen when you get up to the pulpit steps into the pulpit. Either it can go flat or God can take over and you’re away. The romance of preaching I suppose started for me just about a week after I was converted. I was converted Saturday May 21, 1955. The week after on the Friday night I gave my testimony

in open air meeting in Penydre in Neath. That was the first time I had ever spoken publicly and soon after that I was asked to give a testimony in a Sunday service in the Church and I immediately said yes because I was bubbling with enthusiasm at that time and immediately I said yes I regretted it. I thought oh blow me.

joy of preaching was there then. I didn’t know much about preaching, I didn’t know enough really to be preaching. But God was there and God was beginning to teach me.

CPM - remember hearing stories about the time that God moved very powerfully in Rugby. When I went and visited there years ago one of Nerves kicked in. I thought speaking in the open the Elders told me they can remember you runair was one thing, speaking in a Church was an- ning into the pulpit on a Sunday morning. Can other thing and I was petrified as to what to say. you talk about that. And then I discovered Luke 12 v 12 where Jesus Peter - Well I can’t remember that - I probably said to the Apostles “Fear not what you shall did - I don’t know - but there were some Sunsay for the Holy Spirit shall give you the words days in Rugby which were quite phenomenal. in the same hour”. Now I know now that I was There were times in Rugby we knew something taking that verse completely out of context. But of the power of the spirit, there is no question at that time, it was a great encouragement to me about that. And there was some Sundays when and the Holy Spirit did give me the words and I I was preaching and I was as if I was in the conthink many in the Church thought He gave me gregation listening to myself preaching. I can’t too many words perhaps because the testimony explain it but I was just sitting down listening went on a bit longer than they expected. and I was still preaching. It was an amazing sort But from that time on within about six months of experience. And God spoke in amazing ways of that I was preaching, I was only 18 and the in Rugby and there were some Sundays which

were quite, quite unusual and God blessed and God spoke and God always speaks through his word you see. I remember one Sunday morning in Rugby a lady phoned me early about 8.00 am on a Sunday morning saying she had three very serious problems she needed to talk over with me. I said well see me after the service this morning and we’ll arrange a meeting. I preached and after the service she came to the door and she said there is no need for me to see you now Pastor, my three problems were answered in your sermon. Now I still don’t know what the problems were but God did, and God answered her problems through the preaching and that’s what preaching is. It isn’t just some man spouting off, its God speaking and God spoke to that woman that day and God answered her problems quite to my ignorance. CPM - Would you say that many people that are preaching today have lost a sense of what preachers may be 100-200 years ago, had a sense of that preaching was meant to be prophetic. Peter - Well I think many preachers have lost a lot of things today in preaching. I’m reaching into my 70’s now and sometimes I look back and I think preaching isn’t like it used to be. I think stop now careful boy, don’t be committing the

cardinal sin of an old man comparing things now and then. But its true I think I hear some preachers today and they give nice homilies and they give reasonable words I suppose in a sense, but there is no bite in the preaching and there is no prophetic element in a sense that God is speaking through this word, that God is coming to us . You see I have got this belief, that I am more and more convinced as I go on, I’m at the stage now where I am speaking to you CPM, I was in Church last Sunday and that was the first time in five months I’ve been able to go to Church, so I haven’t heard much preaching for the last five months, but it was good to hear the preaching last Sunday, very good sermon. But I come to the point where I think that where is this sense of God. I think when you come from a Church on a Sunday service the question you want to know is have I met with God. Have I met with God, was God there, did God touch my heart did God speak to my soul. I think this is missing somehow. We seem to be not quite happyclappy, but silly sometimes and the whole service is too jovial sometimes and there’s no sense or little sense of God. The awesomeness of God, the wonder of God, the holiness of God, the majesty of God. When that comes, wow, things happen then.

Exclusive Interview with Peter Jeffrey—20

CPM - I think that’s probably the hardest thing to manufacture. You can manufacture the rest, but that’s the one thing that you cannot manufacture and I think sometimes we have substitutes for having God there. When you first began to notice your preaching change. In other words you felt that power come down. Well I remember a time for me where preaching began to change and ironically its probably why I’m sitting here. It was in Pacific Hills California at a Church that you were speaking at. It was a Sunday night and this sense of God came upon us on a Southern Californian congregation in a way that I had never seen before, though I had gone to this Church for years and listened to the preacher there. You finished preaching and the congregation didn’t move for almost two minutes, which for Southern Californian’s is very, very rare. But when you preached it was almost as if the Holy Spirit had dropped a bomb there and everybody was a bit shell shocked. Do you remember that night? Peter - I don’t. And I tell you something, when I went to Rugby my preaching changed. I had been nine years preaching in Cwmbran and I was, I suppose, a good preacher - I don’t know - but nothing unusual. There were 30,40, 50 like me in South Wales. But I went to Rugby and something happened. Something happened. I remember a missionary came to visit us in Rugby, a friend of mine, and we’d had lots of converts, a lot of young boys converted off the drug scene, off the streets and she was speaking at the prayer meeting and I could see her afterwards down the front talking to a crowd of these boys. Not boys, men in their mid twenties. And she walked up to me and said Peter can I ask you a

The baptismal at Rugby Evangelical Church saw countless people pass through it’s waters. Church Planter David Morgan and Preacher Peter Jeffery pose in it’s empty shell before they filled it with water, and the Spirit filled it with people.”

Preaching with Power - Peter Jeffrey

question, have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Me, thinking of tongues and that’s first up, oh no I said, I haven’t had that. But looking back I think I had. I never spoke in tongues and we never knew healings or anything like that, but something happened to the preaching that is only explicable in terms of God coming there. God came on the preaching. Now I didn’t know that again until I went to America. And I felt in America I was beginning to know something again of the power of, well I was in Rugby 14 years, and we had this mostly through the 70’s into the early 80’s, but then preaching in America, preaching at Pacific Hills, is that the Church you were talking about, in Los Angeles, we knew great services in that Church, absolutely phenomenal services. God was amazing in the power that came on the preaching. You see any good preacher can preach a good sermon. And more often than not will preach a good sermon if he is a good preacher. But it takes the spirit of God to come on him for it to be a mighty sermon. To make a word that rivets and captures and dominates and controls and rivets people and we knew that in Rugby. Praise God for that. And I’ve known something about that in America both on the East coast and the West coast. Knew it in the Churches in Long Island in New York and certainly in Pacific Hills and Churches there. God was good. CPM - I can remember sitting there that night. I had been in ministry for maybe one or two years and had preached since not long after I got converted. But I remember having the impression there that night, that whatever I had been doing before wasn’t preaching and everything for me began to change. I would say that’s the first step and that’s probably why we’re here doing

this interview right now, its because we can do so much on our own but we need that extra bit and I think thats something that you’ve had an experience with. What would you say is the most important or most valuable thing for a man to remember while he’s in that pulpit. Peter - He’s in the pulpit for the benefit of the congregation, God yes, for the praise and glory and honor of God. That goes without saying. But he’s there for the benefit of the congregation. He’s not there to demonstrate his own abilities, or show how good he is as an orator. He’s there so that these people might be edified, they might be drawn closer to God. The sermon you see confronts people with God, or it should. Confront the people with God, the living God. And he should always remember in the pulpit he’s there for their sake. They’re not there just to listen to him. He’s there for their sake. And If he remembers that, I have found over the years and particularly again in Rugby - I had a rapport with the congregation. I could speak to them as if I was speaking to you now just across the room here, and they would respond to that. Now you don’t get that all the time and you don’t get that with some congregations certainly, but certainly I did then. And you really feel you want to help these people, you want to draw them closer to God. You want to show them God. You see you prepare a sermon and sometimes, well its OK, but then you get into the pulpit and it takes off. It just takes off. There is no question about that. And sometimes you prepare a sermon and you know your heart is warmed. You’ve been the same I’m sure CPM. You’ve been preparing a sermon and the tears have run down your face as your writing the sermon. And you just rejoice and you just pray that you have that same blessing in

study and if he’s real to you in the study, when your alone with him, who is it said that, “ what a man is on his knees alone with God that’s what you are“, was it McShane said that, that’s true you see, when your on your knees alone with God that’s what you are. And you will be no CPM - I’ve asked you this question before and I more than that. You can parade in the pulpit, know it’s a very difficult question, probably one you can be an actor in the pulpit, and that’s no that you don’t have the entire answer for othergood to anybody, but you need to be alone with wise you’d probably be very rich marketing it, but God, you need the power of God, so that when if we knew the answer to this question we could you come into the pulpit, God is there and God probably answer everything else. What would be being there - preachers I believe are born not the best advice that you could give a young man in made. You either got the gift of preaching or you securing the anointing of the Spirit on his preachhaven’t got the gift. If you’ve got the gift it can be ing. Obviously that’s not for once in his life time, developed, and it must be developed. Many things but it’s a daily thing and a weekly thing. Its every can go and be irrelevant, but nothing substitutes time he steps in the pulpit I suppose. What’s been for this sense of God. That’s true in any part of the thing that’s been most helpful to you to help the Christian life you see, whether your in the pulsecure the anointing of the Spirit. pit or out of the pulpit, but perhaps its something Peter - Well I don’t know, there are so many we’re lacking today. things. I always had a fear of God. In the sense that I would fear to offend God by what I’m saying in the pulpit. By not just the content of the Connect with Peter: word, but my manner in the pulpit. Gods got to be in the front, Gods got to be honored, Gods got to be top. And we are only little boys trying to be for His glory. I think cultivate this fear of God. But God is real. God is real to you in the the pulpit on Sunday morning and that’s what we want. We want a sense of God. We want a sense of God. The preaching isn’t to whether its contemporary or traditional, its to please God. And if it pleases God it will please the people.

by: PATRICK HUBBARD

W

hat exactly is the mission of the church? Many in the Western church have equated its mission with evangelism. Often, they advocate for social ministry but as a means to capitalize on someone’s felt need in order to evangelize them. This is a practice that John Stott has stated ultimately results in “rice Christians” (people who make false professions in order to continue to benefit from social ministry). Others, who believe the church’s mission is only to make converts, see social ministry as a byproduct of faith in Christ but not necessarily part of the church’s mission in the world. For them social concern is necessary in the life of the believer, but aside from its role in evangelism (creating an opportunity or testifying to the genuineness of faith), it does not advance the mission of the church. They see a dichotomy between the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. By no means am I arguing that the view I have presented above represents the predominant view in the Evangelical church. A wide variety of beliefs on the mission of the church are prevalent. However, the above view is one that I encounter quite often as I lead Living Bread Ministries (LBM), a ministry focused on planting churches among the global poor. Through my work with

LBM, I have been influenced by many theologians and missiologists in the Global South as well as Biblical Theologians from the West, which has lead to a much more comprehensive, dare I use the term “holistic”, understanding of the mission of the church. To be clear, I am a champion of evangelism, and I fervently insist that any understanding of mission that does not grasp the necessity to verbally communicate the gospel is not Biblical. That being said, I believe the understanding of the mission of the church communicated above is horribly inadequate. It is inadequate because it begins in the wrong place. Many begin to develop their understanding of the church’s mission after Genesis 3 and primarily in the New Testament. They begin at the fall of man and develop a theology of mission that is more about getting saved than serving God. The mission gets boiled down to evangelism, often resulting in churches filled with professing believ-

ers searching for purpose. The problem with this is that it totally neglects that the Lord created Adam and Eve with a purpose, and that before the fall He commissioned them to fulfill that purpose. Humanity’s original great commission, also known as the cultural mandate, is found in Genesis 1:26-28. God created mankind in His image and gave them dominion over the earth. Most Old Testament scholars have come to understand this as the functional, or missional, image of God. This means that Adam and Eve were created to be priest-kings. They were commissioned as kings to mediate the reign of God on Earth. They were to subdue the Earth and bring it under the manifest reign of Yahweh. As they were fruitful and multiplied, they would extend God’s reign beyond the garden borders to the ends of the Earth. As priests, they dwelt in the garden temple in the presence of the Lord. By cultivating the garden (Genesis 2:15) they would extend

its borders, and thus the presence of God, to the ends of the Earth. The original mission for humanity was to manifest the reign of Yahweh over all creation and to extend the garden temple and thus His presence to the ends of the Earth. This did not change when Adam fell into sin. Rather, the necessity for redemption/restoration was added to the existing mission. This means a spiritual dimension is added to the command to be fruitful and multiply. Ultimately, Christ restores the image of God in fallen mankind so that the new humanity can once again pursue its mission (Romans 5:12-21, 6:1-14; 1 Cor 15:45-49; 2 Cor 5:17-21; Col 3:1-10; 1 Peter 2:9-10). This happens via new birth, by grace, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ. In light of this, clearly evangelism is essential to our theology of mission. However, the mission itself was given in Genesis 1:26-28 and reiterated in Matt 28:16-20. These two passages do not contradict one another. Disciples are restored image bearers (a kingdom of priests) who seek to manifest the reign of Christ in the world by bringing all of life under His Lordship and to build a spiritual house (the church) thus extending the presence of God throughout the Earth. Jesus is the supreme example of how this is to be done. Neither the presence, nor the reign of God is extended by force. The kingdom expands for the glory of the Father, under the

authority of King Jesus, and by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit through death, the continual dying to self of the members of the body of Christ. Disciples must lose their lives for the sake of the kingdom. This is the mission of the church. If you would like a more comprehensive explanation of what I shared above, please read The Image of God and Mission. In light of this understanding of comprehensive mission, the question becomes how should the church address social issues? In the remainder of this article, I will briefly share some information on the humanitarian crisis of human trafficking. Then I will share how LBM is applying the above understanding of mission to address the issue through church planting. According to the United Nations, at any given time, there are over 2.5 million people in forced labor, including the sex industry. This slave trade affects 161 countries around the world. The average victim is between 18 and 24, but it is estimated that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. Women are the primary targets of trafficking averaging two out of every three people enslaved. The global poor are especially vulnerable to human trafficking. Often they are tricked into captivity with promises of job opportunities. Frequently, they are sold into slavery to pay family debts or provide money to care for other family members. I have personally seen news re-

Sex Trafficking

ports of a case in Brazil where poor Paraguayan families gave their children to Brazilian traffickers believing they had wealthy European families who would adopt their children. In reality the traffickers took the young girls across the border into Argentina and put them to work in a brothel. While sex trafficking understandably gets most of the media attention, forced labor is also a real issue. We must acknowledge that many of the inexpensive goods we enjoy as American consumers are the direct result of slave labor. I recently met a Thai Christian who works for a major US clothing company. His job is to visit all of the factories manufacturing clothing for this particular company to ensure that they are treating their workers fairly. One practice he shared with me is that some factories in Asia will “hold” the passports of their immigrant workers, which effectively makes them slaves unable to leave the job for fear of arrest. As Christians we can no longer turn a blind eye to this issue. This is not only a problem for the rest of the world. Many of the victims of human trafficking are brought into our country. Just read the news reports every year around major sporting events like the Super Bowl, and you’ll see countless stories about women and children being smuggled into the host city to be exploited sexually. Even our own citizens often fall prey to this horrific practice; many, if not most of them, are children. Advocacy is important. Sin and exploitation thrive in the dark. We need to shine the light on this issue and bring it to the world’s attention. A quick look at social media will reveal that many people are doing this, and it’s good and necessary, but by itself this is a very shallow response. Surely slaying this kind of mon-

ster will require much more sacrifice than a few tweets and blog posts. What more can the church do in the face of so great an evil? As I mentioned above, I will utilize the remainder of this article to explain how Living Bread is applying a comprehensive understanding of mission to our specific calling to plant churches in order to address the crisis of human trafficking. We believe that the body of Christ, specifically its local manifestation, is best equipped to address such social issues. This is true because we believe it is part of the comprehensive mission of the local church to do so. Therefore, we are equipping each of our church plants to minister to their community in a holistic way. For this reason, each of our church plants is boldly proclaiming the gospel and radically living it out in tangible ways. There is no dichotomy between evangelism and social action. The kingdom of God is taking root in needy communities, and people are beginning to obey, in word and deed, all that Christ commanded. They love their neighbor as themselves, and thus they love their soul and their body. For example, our church plants have established and lead various ministries including feeding, education, clothing, health care, assistance for widows, etc. In the very near future, we will launch our first church plant in Thailand. This is a coun-

try that in many ways is ground zero for human trafficking. We have begun working in Thailand because we believe planting the types of churches described above can greatly impact this humanitarian crisis. As the gospel is planted in a given community and the body of Christ (the church) begins to form, several key things start to happen. First, with the type of comprehensive approach described above, the immediate needs of people will be met. This is important because hunger, for example, often leads many among the poor to seek sources of income that leave them vulnerable to traffickers. Many women will enter the sex industry or send their older children into the city to find work, which almost always means entering the sex industry, in order to care for their families. Second, many among the poor have no hope of ever escaping poverty, and in a place like Thailand, their religious practice leads them to believe they must accept their lot in life. The gospel of Jesus Christ confronts this lie of the enemy! When bold gospel proclamation is connected to a church that understands the need for comprehensive missions, transformation will take place among the poor. As people receive hope through the gospel of grace, the church can then begin to help them gain skills to improve their lives. Literacy programs, education

Photo by Ira Gelb

assistance, computer classes, or simply the hope of a better future all serve to help break the cycle of poverty. Our annual Share Christmas project is a great example of this. Third, as gospel community begins to form and people begin to love their neighbor as themselves, people become their brother’s keeper. Community participants begin to look out for, protect, and assist one another. Furthermore, with a proper understanding of mission, their focus will not terminate on themselves, but their care and protection will extend to the vulnerable among them. This is very important in needy communities where the breakdown of relationships, familial and between neighbors, combined with severe physical needs makes the people especially susceptible to traffickers. The three areas above provide a very basic overview of how planting churches that practice comprehensive mission among the poor can and will impact social problems. This is true even for the seemingly insurmountable problem of human trafficking. For sure, an approach that

includes churches, humanitarian groups and governmental involvement is necessary in combating this evil. Likewise, I adamantly encourage ministries that are working to rescue people from enslavement. At the same time, I realize that rescue efforts are very difficult, and I believe that by planting churches among the global poor we can slow the tide of people entering into slavery. This is the part that Living Bread Ministries is seeking to play in the narrative of redemption and restoration. Patrick has been married his high school sweetheart, Barbara, for 21 years. They have three children Patrick (12), Tabitha (9), and Olivia (6). Patrick and Barbara are the founders of Living Bread Ministries; a church planting ministry practicing integral mission among the global poor.

Connect with Patrick:

PRESENTS:

Exclusive Interview With

SHARE CHRISTMAS JOEL MEYER

By Peyton Jones

Share Christmas is an annual outreach of Living Bread Ministries. Through this JOEL MEYER planted Port Loyola Calvary Chapel in Belize. He and his family live and ministry they are able to equip their church plants, among the global poor, to minister in a virtual war zone as gangs continue to murder those he's sharing the gospel address needs providing school supplies and a hygiene kit to children with, andtangible at times… right by in front of them. in their communities. The project is completely implemented and executed by the church plants and is thus part of a comprehensive, long-term, church planting strategy among the global poor.

Connect with Joel:

Responding To The Cultural Rhythm

O

by Mike Golden

ne of the many joys of following Jesus Christ is being led by Him to do ministry in some rather unique ways. He is not so concerned about our methodology as His our willingness to follow Him down unfamiliar trails. Such was the case with a group of Calvary Chapel pastors in Central Oregon who have been meeting together on a regular basis for several years. God decided to do work in and through that group of men and the churches they represent when He spoke to them all about planting a new church in a rather remote, rural location. With one exception, all the pastors in this group had planted the churches that they were pastoring. It was a rich experience in being able to integrate the various church planting methods together.

tral Oregon, it is High desert which begins on the Eastern slopes of Cascades and transitions into the Northern Great Basin. People here live close to the land in various ways. It is an eclectic place where Patagonia fleece and Keens footwear walk down the street with Wrangler Jeans and Justin cowboy boots.



All but two of the pastors grew up in California, having been saved and later served in some large churches there. We all came north and found a slightly different culture than where

Understanding the Lay of the Land

When most people think about Oregon, they think about lush, green old growth forests, and we have plenty of those here. But in Cen-

The location for the new plant was Burns, Oregon, a small ranching community located in Harney County (pop. 7,422 ). The town itself has a population of 2,806 2 What made this challenging, aside from the potential conflicts of working with different personalities (as it turned out, everything went really smooth), was that the new plant would begin without a pastor on sight. The closest pastor in our group was 70 miles away; the rest of us lived well over 100 miles from Burns.

Responding To The Cultural Rhythm

we were from. Ministry is contextual, based as a response to the cultural rhythm. It is not so much of having to jettison everything you previously learned, but some retrofitting to speak to the prevalent culture might be in order. Burns is different than Central Oregon. It has deeper ranching roots, which tend to be rather conservative and also independent. People there enjoy each other’s company and are very friendly, but also long for the solitude that a place like that affords. As a whole, they are generally more conservative, but that does not translate into an evangelical fundamental type of religious worldview. Rather, it is a rugged sense of individualism that demands respect but is also willing to give it to others of different ideals. There were a significant number of transplants; urban refugees really, who were looking to escape what they believed to be a complex structure of urban lifestyle in exchange for a quest for simplicity of rural surroundings. These are people who like many others, are seeking an alternate way of living, although they are seeking it in a lifestyle and environment more in line with the past than the present. All this to say it is important that you understand the prevailing culture in the area that you plant. What are the cultural norms, what is considered acceptable interaction and discourse; what things are considered disrespectful or an intrusion upon people’s privacy? Our group made a few trips to Burns before starting our plant. It was as a great opportunity to get an understanding of who the people are as we walked around town, meeting people and explaining what our vision was.

The Mechanics of the plant.

One of the things that God led all of us to do was to jointly pull our resources and divide up the labor to plant a new church. We acquired a phone

number to take messages, advertised on the local Christian radio station, and rented a conference room in a local hotel. The closest church also established a temporary account and handled the banking. Someone made the courtesy (and I believe necessary) calls to the other Calvary Chapels in the area ( the closest church not involved in the work was 130 miles away) as well as checking in with the regional pastor to insure that no one else was planning such a work. We established a Sunday evening service time and set our date for the first service which all of us attended and jointly led. We all spoke briefly, sharing the vision that God had given us personally, and then wrapped it up with what our commitment as pastors and churches would be to this new work. For over a year, were rotated teaching responsibilities. The meeting attendance would vary. People started to take some ownership. Some began to give. We had some lead worship and we encouraged them to meet together in a home during the week. One of the benefits that we had not anticipated in this work was being able to bring along other people from our churches and involve them in the work that we were doing. I had the opportunity to bring out two men who taught. This gave these men some experience in teaching and exposure to pastoral care that took place both before and after the service. Some of the other pastors brought out men to teach and lead worship. All of us gave out our cell phones and were available to the people during the week for any pastoral care issues. I got more than I expected one night when I got a call from someone whose husband was one a three day alcohol bender, and

was hearing voices telling him to kill his wife and grandson. I quickly assessed the situation and then dialed 911, who patched me through to the local dispatcher there. It was a tense evening, but the situation was diffused without any incident.

Passing the Baton

Early on in this work, we began to search for someone who felt led to move to Burns and take on the work of this plant. Sometime during our second year, a young man who was a full time youth pastor begin to be stirred by God to come to Burns. He and his wife came out for a Sunday night service in which he spoke. They stayed for a few days that week, praying and talking with people that they met. They felt God calling them and made plans initially to come out at the end of the year. I strongly encouraged him to come out earlier, at the end of summer if possible, to get a running start ahead of the things that detract from people attending services during the fall and winter (hunting season and very cold winters). Again, it was taking into account the local culture. They moved there early fall. They are both a good fit for that community. He is a farrier and she is a horse trainer. They continue to do a good work today, but that is their story to tell…..

Connect to Mike:

How To Pick A

FIGHT by Bob Goff

M

y list of things that I decided to do this year starts with these three words: “Pick a fight.” That might sound a little odd at first. I picked a fight with Dale Gardener when I was in the 7thgrade. He was huge. He almost blocked the sun when he walked by. I didn’t like Dale because he was a bully and beat up the little guys on campus. I’m not sure why he didn’t like me, maybe because I wasn’t a little guy.

bloody noses and let off some steam. We both got expelled for a couple days (which just made for a long weekend), and by Monday we were back at school exchanging gunslinger stares as we passed each in the hallways.

That’s not the kind of fight I was referring to when I made my list. I want to pick a fight where I can make a meaningful difference somewhere in the world. It’s not a fight with a particular person or institution; I want to pick one fight among the many fights being waged on the It was pretty easy to pick a fight with Dale actually. I told Dale one day when he was beat- planet and see if there is a way I can get some ing up another kid that I was “calling him out”. skin in the game; to help in some way; to make a That’s junior high speak for let’s have a fist fight; tangible difference. so we did. We really didn’t settle anything in It’s easier to pick an opinion than it is to the cul-de-sac a few days later other than trade pick a fight. It’s also easier to pick an organiza-

tion or a jersey and identify with that fight than it is to actually pick your own; commit to it; call it out and take a swing. Picking a fight isn’t neat either. It’s messy. It’s time consuming. It’s painful. It’s costly. Stated differently, it’s what many of us should be all about as followers of Jesus.

question about which side he was on: “Neither; take off your shoes.” The angel wasn’t interested in having Joshua and his buddies pick sides, he wanted them to pick God. They were on holy ground, just as we are today, because God was present. Perhaps God doesn’t want us spending our time picking sides or teams and trying on jerThere’s a character in the Bible named Joshseys either. He wants us to pick a fight and then ua. Over and over the phrase “be strong and pick Him. courageous” repeats itself to Joshua and those traveling in his posse. It doesn’t say we’re supI want to pick a fight because I want someposed to be wild at heart, or man up, or dance one else’s suffering to matter more to me. I around the fire naked and tell manly stories. can’t make it matter to me by just listening to the We’re just supposed to be strong and courastory, wearing the bracelet or hearing the song geous. That’s it. The way I read it, it sounds an about it. I need to pick the fight myself; to call awful lot like God is calling us out and telling us it out. Then, most important of all, I need to to pick a fight. run barefoot towards it. I want to go barefoot because it’s holy ground; I want to be running Picking a fight can be scary because we because time is short and none of us has as much might be going it alone sometimes.That’s runway as we think we do; and I want it to be a why organizations and groups are sometimes fight because that’s where we can make a diffea bridge to the fight. But we need to make rence. It’s where we belong as we get to the “do” sure that those organizations and groups don’t part of faith. become an impediment to us actually doing something. We need to be the ones calling out What fight are you running barefoot towards? the bad guys and not leave it to the organizaBob Goff is the New York Times Best-Selling tions. It’s having the mindset that it’s not thier fight that we are joining; it’s our fight and we’re Author of Love Does, as well as an attorney who founded Restore International, a nonstanding back to back with those organizations profit human rights organization operating in or friends in a common struggle. Just as Joshua was going to enter the promised land, he meets an angel who stands with his sword drawn in front of him. Joshua asks the angelic warrior something I would ask: “Are you for us or against us?” It’s a logical question (He must have had some lawyer in him). No doubt, Joshua was hoping that the angelic warrior was “for” them. That’s what I’d be hoping. I love the warrior’s answer to Joshua’s

Uganda and India. Bob often appears at various leadership and university events, inspiring current and future influencers to get to the ”do” part of life.

Connect with Bob:

So This Is What It Feels Like To Get In The Big Game

A

by Hector Mora

s I sat with my daughter yesterday morning, she asked if she could have Eggs and Bacon for breakfast. After confirming that we did have eggs and bacon, I began to prep the scene to what would turn out to be an exciting, terrifying, and educative experience.

many times. She sat herself quietly on the same counter observing ever so quizzically. But this time, it was different . . . her daddy was going to let her partner with him in creating a masterpiece.

As she grabbed the egg, she gently tapped it on the bowl, as I cringed and begged her to be Abigail Rose is her name, she doesn’t like “Prin- gentle. After trying ever so hard to gently crack cess” or “Beautiful”, even though everything she the egg, she began to get a bit frustrated and said “It’s not working Daddy!” I encouraged her not creates is always “pretty and beautiful and perto give up. I gave her some instructions on how fect”. to do it with her own little hands. After breakAs we got the eggs out and placed the bacon in ing an egg all over the counter, and not being the pan, she asked if she could do the honors able to mimic her childhood hero, “Mommy”, of breaking the eggs. This almost-three-year-old she turned to her iPad and lost track of what she was ready to put her hands to work in the mornwas so eager to do two minutes ago. ings activities. She had seen her mommy do this

Being the productive dad that I am, I continued cracking eggs and setting up the assembly line for the perfect breakfast for my beautiful-yetdiscouraged little princess, I mean “Abi”. With two eggs left I looked at my daughter and said “Let’s do this together lovely! You want to?” She responded “No. You cant do it better Daddy.” I said “But together we can do it.” I grabbed an egg, put it in her hand, placed my hand on top of hers, and together we cracked this egg. I put both of her hands on each side of the egg and asked her to dig into the egg with her fingers. As the yoke fell into the bowl, she forgot about the defeat, she didn’t care that her hands where dirty, she just wanted to accomplish what she thought was impossible. In 2006, I was a part of a church plant in Los Angeles. This church went from an Elementary School, to a Middle School, to now a High

School. Outgrowing every capacity, the laborers remained few, yet the opportunities were endless. I was 25 years old then, with only about 2 years of “training” or should I say 2 years “saved”. Having been married less than a year, my wife and I vowed to each other to serve our little hearts out. When I wanted to quit . . . when I made every excuse . . . she kept me focused on the vows we had made as she continued to keep my desire to leave a secret. After two years of serving faithfully and giving ourselves entirely to the goal of seeing a community changed, the Lord confirmed to us that He was preparing us for a different work. A work that was birthed at a Community Group of this Church in Long Beach, CA, the city where we resided in. For the next five years, after leaving the Church in Los Angeles, I would serve the church where

Photo of Long Beach, CA at night.

Photo of Long Beach, CA by WPPilot.

Yeah, the growing pains where full of tears, but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. Here, I learned the hard-knocks of ministry, and the joys of sowing bountifully. I learned what it was to do everything as unto the Lord, holding no expectations except for the fact that Jesus From the Young Adults, to the College Group, to would call me “Good and Faithful Servant”. the High School Group, to the Children’s MinisEven though that’s what I expected, I knew what try, I wanted to experience it all at a grass roots I deserved. I should’ve been taken out of the level. All the Pastors at this church encouraged game at half time. I would have liked it better me in my calling. They poured into me and labored with me in my calling. They protected me that way. It would have been way more comfortable. It would have made more sense finanfrom being over-extended and burnt out. The process was slow, it was excruciating, it stretched cially to continue building my retail portfolio. It wouldn’t have made a difference, I mean, my me and allowed me to learn by experience and team still wins in the end, what does it matter if not by story. Though I was successful in a lot I even played a part in this victory? of areas, I turned the ball over a few times, if you know what I mean. But they never gave up As we speak, the board of my church is praying on me. Yeah, the conversations where tough, about what my departure looks like. The same I first learned what it was to worship the Lord. This church became the place where I learned to sit and wait upon the Lord. Yep, I sat, for about two months . . . and like Jeremiah, my bones couldn’t handle it.

guys that didn’t count me out, the same guys who encouraged me to run the same play after getting sacked. Are praying together as to what they can do to set me up for success in this thing called Church Planting. They say I am anointed. They say the gifts of God are un-repented of. They say that they will miss me. They say that this Church is going to take off rapidly. I could go on and on about all the encouragement they have given me, but in reality, those words remind me of what I heard 7 years ago as I prayed for the city of Long Beach. Those words parallel a still quiet voice that comforted me during a time of defeat and doubt. As people from the church have heard bits and pieces of this new work they are excited for me. They ask me questions that I really don’t know the answer to. One guy even asked me what would happen if I failed, though it caught me

off guard, it was one of the first questions I had asked myself in January 2013 when we began praying for this church plant. To my comfort the Lord reminded me that the work that He began, He is faithful to perfect. A wise man once told me, “When you come to what you don’t know, fall back on what you do know.” What I do know is that the Lord is already doing a work in the city of Long Beach. I know the churches that are completely sold out for the Gospel in that city. I’ve talked with some of the Pastor’s and I’ve confirmed the needs of the city and the culture. I have been doing my research, looking at numbers, statistics, demographics, and income levels, all of which have helped me align my heart with what God wants to do and what He is already doing. PDF after PDF, Report after Report, Conversation after Conversation, none of it can compare to what

So This Is What It Feels like...

the Lord spoke to me in 2007 at the community group on Carson and Atlantic. In fact, I wouldn’t be doing said research if it weren’t for what I had heard in that two bedroom apartment. I don’t know what the future holds for me and my family, what I do know is that my Faith has been tested and it has produced endurance. I’ve left my career by the wayside stripped of all the biblical leadership skills it taught me. As comfortable as it made me, I knew that there was more to life than 3 weeks paid vacation and a 401K. I knew that one day I would have to make a decision; 1. Continue building my career in retail, and using the rest of my week to cram in 2 sermon preps and building my Churches Media Department, all while raising two little girls and trying exhaustively to be a biblical husband and friend to my beautiful wife. Or 2. Let go of my aspirations; trade in my dreams of moving up the ladder for a full time position of labor and dedication entirely to a Church Plant that has an unknown end result. As you count the cost of ministry and church planting, rest assured that your ROI (return on investment) wont make sense. You’ll want to quit before you have even started because building a church is beyond you, but remember that is not your job. People will criticize you and blame you for giving them biblical council and sticking to an inductive bible study model. You’ll have every reason to leave and you may be looking at a comfy cubicle with longing eyes. Before you turn into a pillar of salt, go back to what you know. “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”-Jesus in Luke 9:62 When all you can say is “It’s not working Aba!”.

lessons they taught you. Keep reaching forward to those things that are ahead. Keep seeking the finish line of this thing called life; for that step will be the closest you’ll ever be to Christ, this Philippians 3:12 “Not that I have already attained, or side of eternity. am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” When you’ve made a mess of this thing called church. When you get frustrated and distracted by entertainment. Don’t give up.

Lead from a place of humility. Press into the work of Jesus Christ. That saving work that has transferred you from a defeated kingdom to an everlasting victorious kingdom. That sanctifying work by which Christ has developed you into a shepherd and rescued you from your personal expectations. Long for those things.

In 2003 Hector Mora was invited to an Outreach Bible study taught by Pastor Joey Buran called Worship Generation which was held at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. In 2005 he married the girl that took him to that outreach and they now have two girls, Abigail who is almost 3 and Penelope who is almost 1. Hector is leading a Church Plant in Long Beach California begin-

Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I do not count myself ning in September 2013. to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching Connect with Hector: forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Forget about past frustrations; yet grow in the

Where to Build a Free Church Website by DJ Chuang

There are a few options for churches to get a basic church website built via self-serve without having to installing software or use a credit card. Here is a list of online website builder platforms that specifically serve churches and ministries: •

Churchuna - ”a WordPress-powered web pub-

plan with 12 pages, 2 MB space; paid plans start

church” - free level has 50 MB storage space; paid

at $5.95/month •

ease of use, and great design” - free plan for 1



$25/month

start at $39.99/month

was started in March of 2008 as a ministry arm

ChurchPres – a free WordPress-powered website with 3 GB space, or paid upgrades starting at

admin, 2 ministries and 1 GB storage; paid plans

FreeChurchOnline.net - ”FreeChurchOnline.net

SteepleSites.com - free plan has 3 Pages, 10 MB storage, 1 User; paid plans start at $29/month

City Gates “beautiful website that’s simple to manage. City Gates combines powerful web tools,



OurChurch.com‘s NE1™ Web Builder has a free

lishing platform, created especially for the level starts at £8.33/month *invitation only* •





WorthyofPraise.org – free website hosting for Christian churches

of ChurchOnline.net. After realizing that some

Note, however, that time is more valuable than money.

churches were very small and sometimes in debt

While you could earn more money, you can never earn

where they could not pay for any web site, we de-

more time. Having a free web presence is a way to get

cided to use our profits to sponsor a free version of

started, but I’d encourage you to diligently make room

the product.”

in your church budget to get a professional website built that better represents your church and the God that we worship.

PRESENTS:

ExclusiveInterview InterviewWith With Exclusive

BRIAN JOELBORDERSEN MEYER

By Peyton Jones

BRIAN BRODERSEN is Port the Assistant Senior Pastor at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, JOEL MEYER planted Loyola Calvary Chapel in Belize. He and his family live and CA. Brian planted various churches throughout world hasthe overseen minister in ahas virtual war zone as gangs continue to murderthe those he's and sharing gospel a with, and at times… rightplanters in front of them. vast network of church and mentored them in various stages of planting.

Connectwith withBRIAN Joel: : Connect

“I must decrease. He must increase.”

by Peyton Jones

-John the Baptist “These men have been through the toughest training the Army has to offer, under the worst possible circumstances, and they volunteered for it.” -Richard D. Winters - Band of Brothers

Making the Cut

Anybody that’s every jumped out of an airplane knows that before you take to the sky, you have to spend hours in the classroom learning how to jump. Some guys however, are impatient to jump and don’t want to take the necessary steps before taking the plunge. The result is usually failure. In the long run, those who don’t heed biblical instruction, or the patience of wisdom are doomed to fail.

ling out of helicopters face first. Sound easy? It’s not. They were required to jump face down and free-fall for at least 50 feet before applying the hand break on the rope.

Problem was, some guys seized up as soon as they jumped and immediately applied the break out of sheer panic. As their line went taut, they swung back under the chopper, slamming into the hard metal underbelly, either knocking them In the jungles of Vietnam during the conflict senseless, or causing them serious injury. Either with the Viet Cong, the American 5 man speway, it proved them to be unfit or unready for cial forces teams were running thin for obvious the special forces, resulting in their immediate reasons. When they began recruiting out of the dismissal back into regular infantry. infantry, they thinned out the ranks by running Neeeeeeext!!!!!! jungle jump drills. These drills involved rappel-

It wasn’t lack of drills that made them unsuitable, it was something inside of them. In ministry, it’s not your skills that’ll make the grade. It’s your character. The military specializes in unmaking men, and then reinventing them from the inside out. They strip a man of his old identity, shave his head, give him a number, and slowly let him regain his identity, but only this time, he’s somebody...something...completely different. They’ve retrained more than a man, they’ve retrained his character. Who he is...the inner man.

carried them this far, but what they’ve lacked is character. It reminds me of a scene in Band of Brothers where an old leatherneck chews out a rookie who is irritated that nobody can remember his name after he’s joined the new platoon: “Do you know why no one remembers your name? It’s ‘cause no one wants to remember your name! There are too many Smiths, DiMatos, and O’Keefes and O’Briens who show up here, replacing Toccoa men that you dumb replacements got killed in the first place! And they’re all like you. They’re all piss and vinegar. “Where are the Krauts at? Let me at ‘em! When do I get to jump into Berlin?” Two days later, there they are with their blood and guts hanging out. Screaming for a medic, begging for their mothers! You dumb kids don’t even know you’re dead yet.”

I’ve seen scores of young men pumped with bravado, and an overestimation of their own abilities as planters, yet an underestimation of the dangers of planting. They don’t last. I’ve had many conversations with young arrogant men in Jump School who have to be sent back to the ministry basic training to learn humility, Most planters obsessed with location. They servanthood, hard work, and dependence on the examine demographic reports, and strategize Holy Spirit. A pretty face and the ability to talk how they’ll target a drop zone. They can’t wait

to kill the krauts. If they were in real estate, location would be all that matters, but this is ministry, where location is secondary to character. “Men are always looking for methods, but God is looking for a man.” Not just any man either. God doesn’t need a warm body. He needs a man worth sending. He needs a man that can say “Imitate me just as I imitate Christ”, so that others see Christ’s mission through the missionary. The mission and the missionary are linked. To quote Saving Private Ryan “This time the mission is a man”. When New Breed planter, and former Royal Marine James Richards joined our Jump School training in the UK, he let slip that he’d been a commando for four years. James told us that the parallels to the special forces were right on

target. We don’t apologize for using military imagery, because Paul did the same. He spoke about the weapons of our warfare, pleasing your commanding officer, enduring hardship like a good soldier, demolishing enemy strongholds, fighting the fight of faith, making a stand against the enemy, etc. This ain’t no brisk walk through the park, and that obstacle course ain’t no playground. Therefore, when the New Testament lists off the requirements for leadership it focuses on character. Gifting is secondary. Therefore we’re going to make sure you’re suited up before you jump, go through the safety checks with you, make sure you’ve packed your parachute correctly, you’ve got the right ground support underneath you, and you can actually jump.

Packing the Parachute - The Church Planter’s Motives John Elderidge was speaking with a Pastor in his thirties who had wound up working in the publishing industry. As a young man fresh out of seminary, he’d wanted to become a famous pastor with a church bigger than Swindoll’s. “He wondered aloud why God hadn’t let that happen. “Perhaps” I offered, “because you wanted a church bigger than Swindoll’s.” He didn’t like my answer. And that was the end of the conversation.”

Church planting is sexy in contemporary Christian culture, but is the planter a roadie or rockstar?

John was once faced with that question. You gotta love John. He’s like a young version of Obi Won Kenobi living out in the Dunes, waiting for Luke to arrive. He’s got a head full of dreadlocks, eats locusts, and bellows truth bullets at religious people. His one job was to stand and point at Jesus. When the Pharisees When you jump out of an airplane, for a come and ask him if he was the Christ, “he desplit second, as your racing gravity to pancake nied it, and confessed” that he was not; The mocity, a thought races through your mind. “Why ment of truth when he made a confession that did I ever want to do this?”. he was nobody special. Just a nobody telling everybody about a special somebody. John con That’s a motive question. fessed that he was merely a roadie; merely setting Better to have that question answered before you the stage for the solitary rock star. jump rather than have it flash through your mind That’s a motive question. Am I in ministry as you plummet back to God’s flat earth. I’ve seen it happen, and more than the church plant- because I want people to see me, or because I want them to see Him better through me? John er get taken out in the process.

was only out there because he considered himself a roadie, and decided to help Jesus shlup his gear and do some promo. John knew what an honor it was to share the stage with a rockstar. That’s a privilege roadies have, but only to set up for Him; never to upstage Him. We share the stage, but only to get others ready to see Him. I once attended an Eagles Farewell Tour concert in Twickenham stadium, London. I couldn’t wait for the show to start. The crowd went wild as one of the roadies walked out silhouetted by the backlit stage and the crowd went wild as he picked up the guitar...

...to tune it.

He looked left, then right, and suddenly jammed across the stage playing a Joe Walsh riff. The crowd cheered again, but this time with mixed laughter. It was obvious to them that they’d been mistaken. Thousands had mistaken a roadie for a rock star, and it happens all too often. Unfortunately in the one place where it oughtn’t. It primarily happens in the church

when Jesus stops showing up. There’s only one rockstar in the Kingdom, and as one puritan wisely said, “When the son shows Himself, even the stars hide themselves”. We have a whole host of Christian stars that could take some lessons from John the Baptist. My concern is that many young church planters are viewing church planting as a pathway to glory. Eager to become the next John Piper or Mark Driscoll, they embark on church planting believing that soon, the multitudes will “chant my name and give me goodies” like Nacho Libre. We live in an age where the world so desperately needs to witness us chanting the martyrs refrain “no king but king Jesus.” Instead, their motive is much like Nacho Libre’s “I want people to chant my name, and give me goodies.” Whitefield writes about his own popularity and how it almost destroyed him as a young man. “The tide of popularity began to run very high. In a short time I could no longer walk on foot as usual, but was constrained to go in a

coach from place to place, to avoid the hosannas of the multitude. They grew quite extravagant in their applauses, and had it not been for my compassionate high priest, popularity would have destroyed me. I used to plead with Him to take me by the hand and lead me unhurt through this fiery furnace. He heard my request and gave me to see the vanity of all commendations but his own.” John the Baptist turned his backs on the crowds and devoted himself to lifting up Jesus until it got him killed. Are you willing to lift up the name of Jesus in Tanzania? Some of the best church planters in the world are there and have planted 350 churches in the last ten years through viral church planting. They take men, carry them throughout the bushland, and then drop them off to plant. Their final exam is that they have planted churches that have planted at least one church. Returning within 3 years, they find that the student’s church has planted ten churches that have planted churches themselves. If all you were ever known to was a bunch of

tribes in Africa, would you go there and do that? If it meant long range impact but lesser visibility? If it meant that nobody ever downloaded your sermons, visited your webpage, and (gulp) knew your name? I’m afraid that most Americans would choose short range impact, but widespread popularity…

Which would you pick?



That will put your motives in perspective...

In building upwards, the tower of Babel warns us what happens when people try to make a name for themselves. If that is your motivation, then you’d better quit while you’re behind. If you’re not out to make a name for Jesus, then you’re in for a world of hurt... no matter how big your church grows. There are people out there who like to eat feces, it’s a medical condition, and I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding people who suffer from its spiritual counterpart. Dai once had a topic at a conference titled “Why Plant a Church When

You Can Hit Yourself Over the Head with a Hammer?” Brilliant title; stunningly accurate. All we’ve ever been able to promise our church planters is blood sweat and tears. What God has done through the Chandler’s, Driscoll’s, and Chan’s is special. You’re not. Lesson one. If you’re going to impact that places where Jesus is truly needed, either in America, or further afield, you’re going to need to sacrifice the Isaac of fame on the altar of the God who called you to leave everything behind. Unless your church planting is motivated by a passion for the lost to behold Him, coupled with a sense of your unworthiness to untie His sandal straps, you’re just playing church, like a 5 year old plays house. When I was working at Starbucks, happily living under the illusion that God took me seriously about quitting ministry, somebody came up to the bar. Quoting Deuteronomy, he said, “Hey, I have a prophesy for you. You have been the tail, but I am going to make you the head.” I smiled as I looked at him, and replied, “That’s really nice of you to say that, but the truth is, if you knew what God was really saying to me over the past year, you’d know that He’s been teaching me that I’m the tail. I’m really happy being that, because every time I think I’m the head, I get my tail kicked. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to reject that as a prophesy brother.” I was content making coffee and telling people about Jesus as the opportunity arose. The best thing about Pillar starting up was that when it got underway, I couldn’t care less about my online sermon archives, position in the church, or whether anybody would ever hear about it. None of that rubbish even mattered to

me. All that mattered to me was that the people in front of me knew that they were loved by the Father, saw Jesus, and were filled with the Holy Spirit. I had never before done ministry so purely...WHERE IT WASN’T ABOUT ME! There is one area in which your ambition should be grand. C.E. Jefferson in the character of Paul states: “He was great in his aims and plans. There was nothing small in his ambitions. He had in him the spirit of a world conqueror. He was far greater than Alexander the Great. He was always dreaming of other worlds to conquer. Nothing less than the whole world for Christ would satisfy his heart. He carried in his eye Rome, the center of the world, and Spain, the end of it. In his imagination , he could see every knee bending, and every tongue confessing that Jesus is the Master indeed. He is the Christian Hercules, and his labours are so varied and wonderful that we sometimes lose the man in the blaze and glory of all that he accomplished. It was he who lifted the Christian religion out of its Palestinian cradle, tore away its swaddling clothes and trained it to walk along the highways of the Roman Empire. It was he who chipped the shell and set the imprisoned eagle free. It was he who lit the first christian lamp in the palace of the Caesars. It was he who converted a Jewish sect into a world religion. It was he who saw Jesus not simply as the Jewish Messiah, but as divine Savior of all mankind. It was he who placed the cross of Jesus at the center of human history and also at the center of the Universe.” (C. E. Jefferson – The Character of Paul pg. 376)

Jumping with Style: The Church Planter’s Gifting Now, I realize that you aren’t all as gifted as I am, so it’s almost unfair of me to write about this...

ing, making them feel incredibly loved. Or you might be like the mascot in the chicken suit. You make people laugh.

(If I could, I’d have the publisher fry the bottom half of this page so it looked like it’d been struck by lightning).

Temperament and gifting differ from church planter to church planter, and although you’re not a snowflake, you are unique.

It’s all part of God’s sovereign calling of yourself into the ministry, having set you apart from birth, or as Paul sometimes said, “called to be an apostle before the foundation of the world”. Paul was raised with the highest of learning, a mind like Einstein’s, the writing abil That’s what is important to know. Spurgeon ity of Shakespeare, and the spirituality of...well, and Lloyd-Jones were two uniquely gifted men Paul. He was unique, and he was uniquely called. greatly used by God, yet they were nothing alike. And so are you. Likewise, your gifting is going to be different from the leader next to you. He may be able to Don’t get your head all bigged up over that, turn on the water works at sad events because he because all of the gifting in the world pales in possesses the gift of compassion. You might be contrast to your character and walk with God. the unbreakable rock of machismo; but you can God can get a donkey to talk for Him, but he preach circles around him. Another guy may be needs a human being to be filled with the Spirit to live out the gospel of Jesus. Although I may an incredible administrator who can memorize appear to be side-stepping the issue of gifting, people’s names and details upon a first meet I believe God has a sense of humor or he wouldn’t have invented farts or talking donkeys. Yes, God beat Shrek to the punch. God knows funny, and sometimes even your sense of humor is a gift.

I want you to know that it faced with a choice between character and a preaching gift, I’d pick character. So would Paul. Over speaking with the tongues of angels, moving mountains by faith, raising the dead, and literally burning out for Jesus, Paul would pick love...

He’d pick love.

God, give me love...the greatest of all your gifts. I may not be a great preacher, administrator, or counselor, but I hear that love never fails. If this next generation doesn’t toughen up in their character they’re going to be planting churches that take off like a firework, flare up with a bang, and fizzle back into the darkness of obscurity. This generation isn’t known for being the hardest of workers. Many of them don’t move out of their parent’s house until they’re pushing 30, and haven’t decided “what they want to be when they grow up” by the age of 25.

Why Gifting Isn’t Enough Church planting is the spiritual equivalent of Boot Camp. You know why they have Boot Camp right? To weed out the sissies. You’ve gotta have grace, grit, and gumption to stay on and stick it out as a planter. You need stamina. My biggest fear for the guys I coach is that they won’t have the stamina to endure the weight of planting. They can preach well, and think that’s all they need. A few months in, reality hits. They realize it’s going to be a long grind, and they peter out.

They thought all they needed was to be gifted.

There’s a saying “Hard work is better than talent, if talent isn’t working hard” I’ve said it before but church planting is hard. Sometimes, it’ll wipe the floor with the most gifted of preachers, and eat him for breakfast if he’s not willing to roll up his sleeves and dig in. For all of the glory stories about church planting, there’s a lot of stuff that planters have to do behind-the-scenes that they don’t want to. It’s usually stuff that they aren’t good at, never saw themselves doing, and quite frankly, don’t have time for. In the end however, these things must be done...or the church goes belly up. You see, it’s the behind-the-scenes stuff that determines the make-or-break. For example, yesterday, I was setting up a bank account, getting signatures from a lawyer, picking up a check, and doing loads of admin in between discipling individuals, training a small core team and teaching a home study. Today, I’m calling people, looking at graphics, forward planning, examining and refining constitutions and bylaws, and dealing with the logistics of meeting at a school.

testimonies of churches that exploded with thousands of people within a month or two of the launch. The fact is, that’s the exception to most church plants, not the rule. It definitely wasn’t the Apsotle Paul’s experience, and he was the best in the biz. Church Planting is a man’s game; it’s not for little boys. You’re gonna have to work, endure, and be patient according to Paul’s advice to Timothy...and if you can’t stomach doing stuff that is either hard, or not what you want to do...well... there’s a sign hanging on the door that reads:

Church Planting - Wimps Need Not Apply.

Peyton Jones is founding coach of New Breed Church Planting UK/USA. Jones received his MA Theology: Pastoral Studies from Wales Evangelical School of Theology and served as the evangelist for Lloyd-Jones’s legendary Sandfields church, Aberavon.

This is the stuff that nobody tells you about.

Nobody warns you that church planting is going to be about working. Not just working... but working hard. In church planting, you work hard or nothing hardly works. I don’t flaunt what I do in front of my congregation when I’m planting. I don’t tell them the hard stuff. But those that want to serve and plant churches of their own soon find out. I’m concerned about this generation of planters coming up. They’ve imbibed on iTunes sermons, youtube vids, and

Connect with Peyton:

Photo by { pranav }

Creating a Culture of Internship in the Church

T

by Dr. Ray Chang

here are many factors that contribute to who we are and what we are about. Whether people, circumstances, or books, God can bring various experiences along our paths that shape us and our ministry. For me, 1991 was a one-year experience that served as the profoundly formative experience of my life.Growing up at church, my understanding of ministry was either by sheer observation (usually what not to do) or just learning by doing (usually being told what to do). There was very little guidance. After finishing at two seminaries with two Master’s degrees, I was as one person remarked, “educated beyond my intelligence.” I had all the theory without practice, until a friend told me about an internship at a large church in Fuller-

ton, California. It was pastored by one of my preaching heroes, Chuck Swindoll. Just an opportunity to be trained under this gifted leader was one of my dreams. When I applied, I had very little hope that I would be selected. Each year, they would select two full-time interns who would not only work with Pastor Chuck but would also be the interns with the church. This radically changed my understanding of ministry. The internship became the most valuable, formative experience for me. I call this year the seminary learning I never got from seminary, or simply the missing year of seminary. In our internship year, the church was dealing with an elder convicted of child molestation. We saw how the church dealt with crises

Creating a Culture of Internship in the Church

and how sin was confronted. We saw how the staff supported each other through the day-today grind of ministry rather than creating silos. We saw the key element of trust fostered and nurtured among the church board and staff. We saw worship joyfully experienced and God’s Word faithfully taught. We were also given opportunities to teach, lead and learn from all the staff. I look back at that year as the most foundational and formational year of my life. It was an internship that was personal and practical. It focused on exposure and experience. It gave full access to learning. Because of the value of internships in my life, I wanted to make this a part of our culture when we planted a church in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The church plant began with five interns from Talbot Seminary and their spouses as the core group. It became a laboratory for these interns to learn how to do ministry. While nothing was set up, they established ministries like small groups, worship, young adult, outreach and assimilation. From our core group of six families we grew to about 60 adults and launched our church. From this experience, I have learned some principles of developing a culture of internships or residencies. In my doctoral thesis, I examined two case studies of churches who had well-developed “internship” or “residency” programs. For the sake of this article, I will use the terms synonymously. While some have called an internship “slave labor” or “free work no one else wants to do,” the goal of an internship is to “provide supervised practical training.” The focus is more on the intern rather than the job. It is an investment for the long-term rather than for short-term minPhoto by fusion-of-horizons

istry gain. While churches and ministries may gain from interns, it really serves to invest in building up workers for God’s kingdom. So how does a church, regardless of size, develop a culture of internships? Here are some practical questions and principles to consider. 1. Do you have a vision for investing in younger leaders? It begins with the senior leader or leaders. If internship is truly to be a value, then it has to be a value with the person steering the bus. Leaders provide the access points for internships and should lead the church to value the process. 2. Are you willing to make financial investments? It takes more than a willingness to bring on interns. It takes resources. Will the church structure or restructure resources to invest in interns? The great news about interns is that it doesn’t take a lot.

fit with the unique background and personality of the intern. As I reflect on my days as a pastoral intern, it was one of the most important years of my life. All five principles were integral in the internship. The church was completely on board with this internship. It was celebrated from the senior pastor to the person sitting in the pew. They paid me a full-time salary. The senior associate pastor personally oversaw the process and met with us weekly to go over what we learned. To this day, he is still one of my personal mentors. We had consistent times of reflection and assessment. From the personal interviews at the beginning to internships to feedback through the year, we were constantly challenged to look at how God wired us as leaders. And, the training was both the reading of books and the studying of Scripture together (Pastoral Epistles) as well as on-the-job training. All of this contributed to developing me into a better pastor and leader.

3. Is there someone who can personally oversee the interns? Whether the senior pastor For the sake of the kingdom, we can help the or a staff member, churches of all sizes can next generation become better pastors and leadoffer practical learning if time, direction, ers as well and guidance is given. 4. Are you willing to give a realistic assessment of the interns? Feedback is important during an internship process. Whether they are serving, teaching, or leading, there must be an assessment process. 5. Is there a training process in place? Some of my early internship experience was just about doing. I was a hired gun for a particular need like youth ministry, but there was no training. Training involves both classroom and on-the-job training. It also has to

Ray Chang is currently the Lead Pastor at Ambassador Church in Brea, CA. A veteran of two church plants, he also leads a multi-ethnic church planting network, Ambassador Network. He is married with twin daughters.

Connect with Ray Chang:

When talking to veteran church planters, they often stress two things: prayer and evangelism. Of course, these things are heavily stressed in Acts. If it worked for the Apostles, it oughta work for us. In this excerpt from Evangelist Ray Comfort’s book “How to Win Souls and Influence People” some practical ideas are laid out. For church planters bathed in prayer, this article should serve to merely get the gears turning and lube the cogs.

DO SOMETHING “Brethern, do something, do something, do something! While societies and unions make constitutions, let us win souls.” ~Charles Spurgeon

Y

ou may be asking the question as to what you can do in a practical way to reach people for the Kingdom of God. Here are a few suggestions: There are a number of evangelistic organizations you may like to join. I was in Gideons International for seven years, until I became a pastor, as they don’t allow pastors to be involved, only lay people. It is such a blessing to be involved in an organization that gives away copies of God’s Word. Then there is Youth With A Mission, Youth For Christ, Campus Crusade for Christ, and many others you could become involved in. Perhaps you could invest in a small advertisement in the personal column of your local paper saying something like “Find reality, read John 8:31-32.” Get a cost quote before you commit yourself. I wanted to buy a full page in the L.A. Times during the Gulf War in 1991. I thought

Photo by fusion-of-horizon

it would be around $6,000, and figured I could probably raise that amount of money. I called the Times and the gentleman gave me the cost: “A full page is $61,023.” I thought he had slipped an extra number in by mistake. Wrong. I dropped that idea quickly. Perhaps you could visit a hospital once a week, with the purpose of finding and befriending someone who doesn’t normally have visitors. If you have a flare for drama, start a drama group. How about writing a tract? Don’t say, “But I can’t write,” say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Write out your testimony, and have a friend or two read it, and give their opinions. Then print out the edited copy, and have it typeset at your local printers. Remember to get quotes before you do anything, so that you won’t get burned. When it is printed, keep copies in your wallet or purse to

demning them, and not God. This happens regularly with counter-culture people who become Christians. Their conscience will not allow them to eat meat. After some time they come across a scripture such as 1 Timothy 4:3-4, which says Back in the late 70’s I had 40-50 children in that God has created all foods “to be received my garage every Friday for a 20-minute “Goodwith thanksgiving by them who believe and time” Club. I remember praying that God would know truth. For every creature of God is good, send me someone who could play a guitar to and nothing is to be refused, if it is received with give the music a bit of a lift. One Friday evening, thanksgiving.” Immediately their conscience is my brother-in-law walked into our living room released by understanding the Word of God. knowing nothing of my prayer, and said, “For When we understand the emphasis which some reason I feel the Lord wants me to give the Word of God places upon evangelism, we you my guitar.” I hadn’t thought of me. I was should humble ourselves, thank God for the gift never able to play a guitar, but now I can do all things though Christ who strengthens me (I just He has given us, then use it for His glory. If you have got no apparent talents, visit an old folk’s have trouble convincing those within earshot). home, or ask your pastor if you can help in any You could easily start a club through your way within the local church. Do something for local church. When I decided to start mine, I just God. Desire to do nothing, and God will give took a marker pen and wrote, “KIDS CLUB, you the desires of your heart. FRIDAY 4 P.M., (ADDRESS), CANDY, PRIZES, STORIES AND SONGS,” gave out phoRay Comfort is the besttocopies at a school gate, and had a crowd of selling author of more than children eager to learn about the things of God. 70 books. He also co-hosts Nowadays, with all the allegations and accusathe award-winning televitions of child molestation, etc., it would be wise sion program “The Way of to have both male and female leaders. Start with the Master” (with actor Kirk a firm hand, sing some lively songs, tell a Bible Cameron), which is seen in story, teach a memory verse, give out some canover 140 countries, and has a weekday webdy, then tell the kids, “It’s all over, see you next based program, “The Comfort Zone.” Ray and week.” If the children don’t say, “Ohhhhhhh!” his wife Sue live in Southern California, where you’ve probably gone on too long and they may they have three grown children. not be back the following week. I found 20 minutes was adequate for most. give to old friends or people you meet, with the words, “You may like to read this when you have a moment, I wrote it myself.” Put copies into the envelope when paying bills.

Sometimes talented Christians don’t feel right about using their gift of music or writing, etc., to reach the unsaved. It is often because of their own pride, that their conscience is con-

Connect with Ray Confort:

Photo by fusion-of-horizons

The Need for Recovery of the Forgotten Ways Let me open by telling you a story. The story comes from Gordon McKenzie’s book, Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace. As boys, McKenzie and his cousin liked to “mesmerize” chickens on his uncle’s farm. They did so by capturing a chicken and holding its beak down to a white line of chalk until it was “mesmerized.” The chickens would remain frozen, mesmerized, in this position until the boy’s uncle would come along and give them a kick in the backside to wake them up from their hypnotic stupor (McKenzie 1998).1

Photo by fusion-of-horizons

creativity. Unfortunately, churches also have the same affect. Something in our traditions, theology, or inherited methodology tends to keep our ‘noses down on the line.’ We rarely break free to do something genuinely innovative, adventurous, or something that just challenges the status quo. Like it or not, we behave like a group of “mesmerized” chickens, and like them, sometimes we need God to give us a prophetic kick in the backside to break our inertia and get us moving again.2

I love God’s people, in all forms, but I also believe that there must be some seriously fun Gordon McKenzie tells the story because damental changes within Western Christianity if he notes that organizations, like the white line we are to halt the hemorrhaging decline of the of chalk in his story, can have a “mesmerizing effect” on people on its orbit. They create a cul- faith in these parts of the world. The logic of ture of conformity that requires docility and dull Western civilization as we now experience it will obedience from its members. This stifles appro- mean increasing marginalization of the church priate dissent, and puts a lid on innovation and- as we know it. Christianity in Western Europe

Reawakening a Potent Missional Ethos in the Twenty-first Century Church

represents the warning for us — the fact is that it is hard to find viable witness for the gospel in the very places from which we received the Reformation message. I therefore present this talk today in the context of a long-trended decline in Western Christianity. The statistics are daunting. In Europe the decline is devastating, but the United States is now beginning to feel the pinch as well— ... [T]he numbers don’t look good. According to 2003 actual attendance counts, adult church-going is at 18 percent nationally and dropping. Evangelical attendance (again, actual seat numbers, not telephone responses) accounts for 9 percent of the population, down from 9.2 percent in 1990. Mainline attendance accounts for 3.4 percent of the national population, down from 3.9 percent in the previous decade. And Catholics are down a full percentage point in the same ten-year period: 6.2 percent from 7.2 percent in 1990. Of the 3,098 counties in the United States, 2,303 declined in church attendance.3 (Morgenthaler 2005) We live in a significant time, a time when decisions we make now will determine the course of events in the future. Because our actions today will bear directly on the church of the future, Christians in the West must recalibrate, at the most basic level, their approaches to Christology, ecclesiology, and mission. These recalibrations, however, do not involve the search for trendy fads or innovative techniques, but rather require the reactivation of the dormant missional potentials of the church that Jesus built: the selfsame potentials that pulsed Photo by fusion-of-horizons

though the Early Church as it grew from as few as 25,000 adherents in AD 100 to as many as 20,000,000 only two hundred years later (see Stark 1996:6—13).4 To recover apostolic effectiveness, Christians need only to return to our most primal, and potent, story. To activate this dormant ethos, I suggest that we need at least four recalibrations. There are: • Recovery of the Centrality of Jesus in His Own Movement, • Recovery of Discipleship as Our Core Task, • Recovery of the Ethos/Structure of Apostolic Movements, and • Recovery of a Missional-Incarnational Impulse. Let’s now consider each of these “recalibrations” in turn. Recovery of the Centrality of Jesus in His Own Movement When Christians dream about the growth of the church, we can become highly excited by the

success of exponential movements. But a critical, often neglected consideration with such movements is the question, what are we multiplying? William Temple once said, “If your conception of God is radically false then the more devout you are the worse it will be for you. You are opening your soul to be moulded by something else. You had much better be an atheist” (quoted in Allen 1995:361). If we get Christology wrong, the most basic of the church’s theological touchstones, then whatever we do after that could be toxic. Therefore a recovery of the full phenomenon of Jesus (his Incarnation, life and teachings, together with the salvific events of cross, resurrection, and Parousia), with all it represents to the movement that claims hisname, must lie at the very heart of any effort to renew the church and its mission. Wemust constantly recalibrate back to him in order to legitimize ourselves as his people. I call this return to our Center “refounding” because it requires the recognition of the Founder’s defining role in the movement and because it sets the movement’s agenda. The title of my book (with Mike Frost) — re Jesus — says it all.

Photo by mikearther

Photo by ©HTO3

In our endeavor to be genuinely Christian, we will therefore need to be radical in the truest sense of the word. We must go to the roots (Latin, radix), the source and foundation of the faith — we must radicalize. When we are lost, when the church is experiencing a crisis of identity, when we find ourselves having to renegotiate our idea of church and mission, as the church that Jesus built we must go back to him to see whether we are ‘in the faith.’ Our very authenticity as Jesus’ people is at stake in this process. As we recalibrate ourselves back to Jesus, we authenticate our Christianity, for it is the Founder that must define the whole movement. Both mission and ecclesiology will flow outward from a solid Christology, not the other way around. We must first radicalize so that we can then engage in mission and truly become the church of Jesus Christ. What are we doing if we are not extending the very movement that Jesus initiated?

tology will naturally flow missi-ology, and from that missiology will flow the appropriate ecclesiology (X > M > E). Today’s Western church, so frequently reversing this order, will therefore need to radicalize first in order to truly missionalize. Besides being the center of the church and therefore fundamental to any notion of missional church, Jesus is a great missionary and provides a wonderful prototype as to how we might engage the world in his name. We could do with more of his way of engaging culture.

But such a process is “dangerous “ to our prevailing forms because from observation we can rightfully say that Jesus and ‘religion’ simply don’t mix. In fact, let me suggest this formula ‘ to make the point: Christianity minus Christ equals religion. To the degree that we remove Jesus from the equation of Christianity (by subtle or not so subtle means) we end up with something less than the church that Jesus built. History amply proves that without Christ, Christianity degenerates into an oppressive reli It is Christology that must define — and constantly redefine — us, for it lies at the heart gion. And ‘religion’ as Jesus encounters it in the of the renewal of the church. Then, from Chris- Pharisees of his day (and as Barth understood it)

is an attempt to codify, moderate, mediate, and control God and, therefore, constitutes idolatry and unbelief. Viewed as such, it undermines the demands of discipleship and the meaning of Jesus’ ministry: the removal of all religion. Ellul even calls what Jesus established an ‘anti-religion’ because it undermines all attempts to control and mediate the God experience through ritual, priesthood, and institution.5 We know from Jesus’ life and message that he and religion do not mix. In fact, he reserved his harshest possible condemnations for religious people! And we have to admit that in North America we have a whole lot of religion going on in our churches. Sadly, history demonstrates how we as God’s people can so often domesticate a radical Christology from our experience of church. It is remarkable how Jesus can be so easily cast out from among his people. Have you ever wondered why in Revelation 3:20 Jesus is seen standing outside his church, with the hookers and other outcasts, knocking at the door and asking to come in, while they worship him on the inside?! How did he get out from among his people in the first place? The process of removing Christ from his church is seldom overt, but is incremental and subversive. Because it can sneak in so covertly, we should constantly realign ourselves to Christ, remembering that we have been created in his image. However, we all have a tendency to recreate him in our own image. To prove this point, Dallas Willard suggests that most middle class Christians think that Jesus is a nice guy, but they do not think he is very smart. Most of us baulk at this statement. But just consider what would happen if we were to apply Jesus’ economic advice to our middle class values, or Photo by fusion-of-horizons

Jesus’ teaching about forgiveness to the current political realm. We would be sorely tempted to moderate Jesus down to size and in so doing qualify his lordship. We must remember that we are called to follow Jesus, not just admire him. Christians are called to believe that Jesus is absolutely correct about absolutely everything.

their capacity to make disciples. No disciples, no movement. Some disciples, some movement; but lots of disciples create a real basis on which movements can both generate and develop. And so discipleship and disciple-making are in fact the strategic missional activities in our time.

As followers of Jesus, we have to recover The antidote to the “yeast of the Pharisees” the lost art of disciple making — not so that we can reproduce ourselves or forward our agenis to put Jesus back into the fundamental equadas, but so that we can become like the One we tion and see what happens: Christianity plus love and follow. I think we have to admit that Christ equals Christianity. To the degree that Jesus is present and active as the organizing cen- most churches fail at this critical point. It is this large-scale failure that has resulted in the general ter of Christianity, to that degree we are truly Christ-ian people. Having Jesus at the very cen- public having an overall negative view of Christer of our experience is what vital Christ ianity is tianity, as Kinnaman and Lyons describe in their book Unchristian} If we fail in being and makall about. ing “little Jesuses,” we will fail elsewhere. Dis If this first, and most important, recalibracipleship is therefore the frontier issue for the tion is about rediscovering the phenomenon of church today: no disciples, no movements; no Jesus in the life of the church, the next one removements, no exponential growth — growth lates to our commitment to becoming like him. that is needed in order to reestablish Christianity as a vital force in our day. Recovery of Discipleship as Our Core Task Another key point is to recognize that dis Christian discipleship is basically a growing cipleship lays the right foundation for leadership adherence to Jesus. As a disciple of Christ, a perin the church. In fact, it ought to be the only son strives to become more like him, to become basis for leadership in the Way of Jesus. Leadera “little Jesus.” During his earthly life, Jesus himship is directly proportional to discipleship: if self worked to embed his life and gospel within we have bad leadership in the church, it is most the lives of his disciples (Hirsch 2006:102-103), likely because we don’t take seriously the founand if he had not accomplished this task, there dational Christ-likeness required in all those who would be no Christianity today. Clearly, disciplefollow the Lord. Becoming like Christ is the foship is crucial to the survival and transmission cal point of all good disciple-making. of the faith. As Christians seek to embody Jesus’ Another reason for recovering discipleship and teachings, we will also seek to transmit those teachings into the lives of others. Jesus’ follow- disciple-making as a lost art is that we live in a culture that is profoundly good at discipling peoers all should strive to be like him, for this is ple in the predominant religion of our day — what it means to be his disciple.7 consumerism. Because people come to church Movements grow only in proportion to

Photo by fusion-of-horizons

as experienced consumers, appealing to people as consumers (as is so common today in many church practices) actually works against Christian conversion and discipleship. Discipleship is about clinging to Christ. And it will therefore also mean removing all other competing claims to our loyalty and allegiance.9 The American church today operates largely by the lights, such as they are, of consumerism. But consumerist approaches to church and evangelism are inimical to true discipleship. Consumerism as a search for meaning, identity, purpose, and belonging is idolatry, and it is killing us (from within). The Kingdom extends not through some sort of Disneyland appeal, but face to face, one person at a time, through appeal to Christ. Any other appeal will have disastrous results when it comes to mission and missional church.

Recovering the Ethos/Structure of Apostolic Movements I have no doubt that if there is to be any advancing of the Western church in the twentyfirst century, it will be marked by the recovery of the apostolic-movement form of the church. If we somehow fail to rediscover this mode of church, I think we will eventually lose all significant cultural impact and become no more than a footnote to Western history. Our forms shape our thinking and behaviors in deep and profound ways, and we have yet to escape the ecclesiological hegemony that was birthed and nurtured in the Constantinian idea of church. But if we are genuinely to rediscover movemental forms in the West, we must first dethrone Constantine and thereby liberate the

Western church from its current captivity to an overly institutional imagination. What we have are inflexible, backward looking, basically fearful and defensive forms of church. What we need are missionally responsive, culturally adaptive, organizationally agile multiplication movements. Such movements mobilize the whole people of God, are reproducing and reproducible, are structurally networked (avoid centralization of power and function), and employ missional leadership and ministry modes. Let’s explore each of these characteristics in greater detail.

expansion is written into the very genetic coding of the church itself.

Said another way, we can say that every believer carries within himself/herself the potential for world transformation, which is to say that every believer carries within himself/herself the possibility of ecclesia. It’s not as far fetched as it appears at first. For instance, in a spark is the full potential for a flame; and in a flame, the potential for the conflagration. In the seed is the full potential of the tree; and in the tree, the potential for a forest. In both cases, the fire and the forest are all contained, in potential at least, in Movements mobilize the whole people of the initial seed. So it is with all of God’s people. God. The real revolution comes when all the people of God get to embrace their God-given If we allowed the reality of this to seep into our destiny as active agents of the King. Surely one overly institutionalized imaginations, we would see new potentials in every believer and every of the most potent ecclesial doctrines in the New Testament is the priesthood of all believers, church. yet we have seldom lived it out. We clergy can be Movements are reproducing and reproducible. In control freaks. We need to recognize that Jesus truth, much of what we do as church is unwieldy is well able to lead his people and that he does and very hard to reproduce — largely because not require professionals to keep his movement of our captivity to institutional forms. In conon track, as the phenomenology of persecuted trast, exponential missional movements thrive movements clearly reveals. Much more is tied in on rapid and spontaneous expansion and can be with this dispensability of church professionals achieved by all agents in the system. That is why than we realize. I have been thoroughly chalthey are able to achieve what Roland Allen calls lenged by what we find in all exponential move‘spontaneous expansion.’ To say it another way, ments across the world, and their stories can reproduction necessitates reproduce-ability and sure teach us a lot about the church that Jesus reproducibility requires an ecclesiology simple built. enough for any disciple to be able to reproduce The statement of an underground Chinese it. Only thus can it be geared for rapid multiplimovement, “every believer a church planter, ev- cation by non-professionals. Movements require ery church a church planting church,” sums it up leadership, but they do not require the presence of a professional or elite ministry class. In fact, for me. The whole weight of what I call Apostolic Genius (the life-force of exponential Jesus the appearance of an elite, “professional” clergy movements) downloads into that statement, and class can tend to slow things down by disempowering the people from their own priestly and it proves that the possibility of spontaneous

God-given functions. Simple reproducibility is consistent with biblical ecclesiology: Paul, for instance, could go to Thessalonica and plant a church in somewhere between nine and forty days ! He subsequently writes back to the church and says that they are an ecclesia of God and that they have no need for him (Paul) to teach them anything! Now that’s church planting! But we make it much more elitist, and our ecclesiology is much more complex. If, for example, our idea of church requires a million dollar budget, bands, buildings, and multiple staff members to get off the ground, then our idea of church is far too complex to become a movement. Likewise, if our idea of leadership requires seven years to ‘drive the liturgy’ and get our heads around the core issues of church, then our idea of leadership is way too complex and works against the possibility of an exponential movement. It all goes back to how we conceive

of the church in its basic form. Movements employ missional modes of ministryäeadership. This means that if we wish to have missional forms of church, we simply have to find our way back to embracing missional forms of leadership — and this leadership must be at least fivefold in form: apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, and theological (Eph. 4:7ff). Interestingly, the root word missio is the Latin equivalent for the Greek word apos-tello. We find it hard even to put the word on our lips because we have delegitimized the apostolic, prophetic, and evangelistic ministries and are left with only a two-fold form. For far too long our orders of ministry have been limited to those of pastor and theologian. But these are maintenance forms of ministry and are ill suited to either catalyze or sustain a movement. What we

Photo by Brian A Petersen

need is the more generative energy of the other theological grounding for any missional idea of forms mentioned in the Ephesians text. We must the church. broaden our understanding of ministry and leadConcluding Thoughts: Jesus Sneezed ership to include at least a fivefold form. As those entrusted with the gospel of Jesus, we are called to go out and spread the message Recovering a Missional-Incarnational Imof his love to all people. And in this practice of pulse spreading the gospel, we can learn a lot from Mission (“sending”) is a primary theme viruses. The gospel spreads just like a virus: we throughout biblical history. Though we often “sneeze” it, others receive it, and they in turn think of “mission” in terms of what Christians sneeze and pass it on to even more people. All do in obedience or response to God, it is betthat is needed is the right set of conditions for ter to see it as characteristic of who God is, and the virus to stay “sneezable” and, once it has see our own mission only in that light. Mission been sneezed, to take hold. is therefore a subset of theology proper and not of ecclesiology (where we have normally situated As I have presented in this talk, primary in our efforts to keep the good news sneezable it). Mission precedes the church, and missional is the recovery of Jesus as central to his own church takes its cue from the Missio Dei. movement. We must also maintain discipleship Mission thus incorporates the sentness of as our core task and retrieve the ethos of aposthe church and grounds it in the sent and send- tolic movements. And finally, we must relearn ing God. We must feel this sentness (going out) incarnational ministry, by which all people, of at the very heart of what it means to be God’s all classes, races, times, and associations, can be people. But we must also allow the way that God enfolded and embraced in the love of God. engages the world to inform our imaginations and practice. We must allow our imaginations to Alan Hirsch is a foundational conference be shaped by the Incarnation. In other words, speaker at Exponential, the founder of the we ourselves must become incarnational. In the Forge Network and author of The Forgotten incarnation of Jesus, God sets the model of Ways and The Permanent Revolution among how we ourselves should engage the world. If other groundbreaking works on missional mission is the propulsion outward, then incarna- thinking. Alan and his wife Deborah are tional mission means going downward, deep into currently planting a church in Los Angeles, culture and speaking meaningfully from within it. CA. It is through an incarnational approach that we can go deep in our ministry to others. These two Connect with Alan: impulses — to go out and to go deep — must be kept close together, each informing and conditioning the other. Outward, deepening, leads to outward, deepening, and so forth. Herein lies the

The Question That Never Goes Away

by Philip Yancey by Philip Yancey

S

ome days, the news seems too much to bear. Yet another tsunami or earthquake or flood or fire or war atrocity. One more gun-toting madman stalking young people in idyllic Norway or moviegoers in Colorado or schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut. We turn off the news only to get a phone call about expectant parents with a stillborn baby, or a loved one whose cancer has returned. Really, God? we ask. This again? If we have faith in God, it gets shaken to the core. What was God doing in the moment when that tragedy could have been prevented? If we can’t trust God to keep our children safe or our loved ones from dying in agony, what can we trust God for? In his classic book Where Is God When It Hurts, Philip Yancey gave us permission to doubt, reasons not to abandon faith, and practical ways to reach out to hurting people. Now, with new perspectives and stories gathered across nearly twenty-five years, once again he tackles the hard questions head-on. His visits to three places in 2012 raised the old problems with new urgency. More veteran pilgrim than curious journalist in his later years, Yancey faces with his trademark honesty the issues that often undermine faith, yet he emerges with comfort and hope. Along the way, he shows that Christians have an important role to play in bringing healing to a deeply wounded world. There are hopeful reasons to ask, once again, the question that never goes away. . . .

TAP THE BOOK TO GET YOUR COPY

C

hurch Planters are poor. Church plants are poor. You need money, and you need it fast. People are more inclined to give if it can be done as quick and painless as possible. Let’s face it, most people don’t walk around with checks, or loose cash. If they do, it’s not 10 percent of their income. Therefore, your church plant is going to suffer if you don’t have a system in place that makes it convenient to the giver.

You know that online giving is important. You’ve heard it mentioned in board meetings. You’ve seen it at other churches you’ve visited or lead. You’ve been told it is probably something you should consider implementing (or improving) at your church. But do you know why, or how, or when?

So, how do you navigate the endless sea of options out there for online giving? Where do you begin? Which one is right for you? Which one is right for your church? Which ones seem to fit with kingdom ethics?

Did you know that 6.1 billion fewer checks were written from 2006 to 2009? (Meanwhile, electronic transactions increased 9.3% per year during that time.)

Did you, for example, know that 81% of adult Americans use the Internet? (The number increases to 94% among 18-29 year-olds.)



Did you know that online giving was up 14%

hear most frequently is: “We’re a small church with limited resources, why should we be paying processing fees for gifts we could be getting for These statistics reveal a reality that most pasfree?” tors and church administrators already know: giving – like most aspects of our lives – is mov- This is an important question – especially for new church plants – but it is based upon a faulty ing online. As with all cultural shifts, the move to the digital world has specific implications for assumption. Namely, that donations via cash and the church. Some of these are merely practical. check are “free.” The decision is not between a transaction fee or nothing; it’s between a transacOthers are spiritual and doctrinal. tion fee and whatever administrative costs you’re It is beyond the scope of this article to adalready paying. dress all of the issues facing the church at the intersection of technology and faith, but I would Gifts made via cash or check have to be at least like to address the issue of online giving. counted, sorted, endorsed, entered into the comWhat is it all about? Is it right for your church? puter, driven to the bank, and deposited. Even if you have a volunteer accountant, all of these What are the spiritual implications? What opthings take time and time equals money. Online tions are out there? giving automates these processes, thereby freeing you and your staff to focus on other essential Why Online Giving? activities. “Is my church ready for online giving?” Furthermore, online giving is not here for While every church is a unique body with the gifts you are already receiving. Will many of diverse challenges, needs, and congregations, I your current givers enjoy having an online opcan say with confidence that the answer to the tion? Certainly! But if all your giving platform question above – regardless of the church’s size, does is convert 15 consistent check writers to 15 location, demographic, or denomination – is an consistent online givers, then it has not provided emphatic, “YES!” much value. There are many reasons I feel this way, but, The point of online giving is to capture the for the sake of time and word count, I will only gifts that the offering plate is missing. It’s for share my three favorites. Taken individually, the member who is out of town on business eveach of these points presents a strong case for ery other weekend. Or for the parent who is at online giving at your church. Taken together, home Sunday morning with a sick child. Or for they change the conversation from “why?” to the 29 year-old who, despite her best intentions, “why not?” keeps forgetting to write a check on Saturday in 2012? (Total charitable giving was up only 3.5%.)

1) Online giving is cheap and easy.

night.

Whenever I meet with a church who is considering online giving, one of the questions I

When it comes to these gifts, there is no cheaper, more effective way to collect them than on your website.

2) Online giving helps you engage with younger generations. “We have young people at our church, but most of them give inconsistently or not at all.” How many times have you said this or heard this at a church you’ve helped lead? Join the club. Figuring out how to encourage consistent giving among young churchgoers is not a new challenge, but it is certainly a common one.

- 52% of Millennial respondents say they’d be interested in monthly giving These statistics are encouraging because they point to a solution that is technological as opposed to psychological or spiritual. The problem with young givers is not that they are poor, selfish, or disinterested; it is simply that you may not have the right tools in place to capture their gifts.

Think about it. When was the last time you saw a 20-24 year old with a checkbook? Con And the good news is – contrary to what versely, when was the last time you saw that you may have read in Time magazine – young people want to give! Check out these statistics same person without their phone? Millennials are already shopping, socializing, and going from a recent survey by the Millennial Impact to school on the Internet and on their phones. Project: Why not provide a way for them to give back to - 83% of Millennials said they gave a gift to The Lord through those channels as well? a nonprofit organization last year 3) Online giving allows for scheduled giving. - 84% of Millennials said they prefer to give on a website, while giving in person came I have saved the strongest argument for last. When it comes to the financial health of your in a distant second with 48% church, it is difficult to overstate the importance of scheduled giving. To that point: a recent review of 1,078 American churches by Rocket Giving (a church consultancy) listed “the ability to accept automatic, recurring donations” as the #1 factor shared by churches that are exceeding their annual budget. The reasons for this are obvious. Scheduled giving creates predictable, sustainable cash flow for your ministry. It helps smooth out the dropoff in giving that many churches experience during the summer months. It lessons the financial impact if you ever have to cancel a service due to inclement weather or other unforeseen circumstances.

Most importantly of all, it can, in a few

clicks, transform an inconsistent and unreliable giver (aka “a tipper”) into a faithful monthly tither. Nearly every online giving platform will include the ability to create weekly or monthly gifts. Many will give you and your team visibility into future scheduled gifts, which is extremely beneficial from a planning and peace-of-mind standpoint.

What about the spiritual implications?

That’s because, as Christians, we understand that charitable giving is not about good feelings or social obligations. It’s not even about money. We give as an act of obedience (1 Timothy 6:1719) and an act of worship (2 Corinthians 8:3-4). When we bring our “first fruits” to the Lord’s house, we are not simply supporting a cause that we care about; we are actively participating in the life-giving work of The Kingdom. And that is the heart of online giving as it relates to the church.

It’s not about money; it’s about ministry. It’s “How will online giving change the way my about creating a culture of stewardship at your church views giving?” church that leverages all available tools so that your attendees – regardless of generation or This is another important question that is often raised when a church is considering adding income level – are left without excuse when the time comes to participate in the offering. giving to their website, and the short answer is: “it shouldn’t.” It is easy to get excited when you hear things Online giving should support and supplement the way your church views and talks about stewardship. It should NOT marginalize giving or push stewardship conversations to the fringe. Even if your congregation elects to move away from a “pass the plate” model – as some churches have – tithes and offerings should never be relegated to the “set it and forget it” world of other automatic bill-pay options.

like: “online giving has been linked to dramatic increases in overall offerings at many churches.” (via www.churchcentral.com) But, from a pastoral standpoint, the real excitement comes not from what that statement says about your bank account, but from what it says about your congregation. Financially healthy churches are supported by congregations who have committed to “give

what [they] have decided in [their] hearts to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7) Online giving alone may not get you there, but it is a cheap and easy tool to help you on your way.

What about PayPal? While many online giving processors have entered the market over the past half-decade, PayPal remains the most popular choice for churches. And it’s not even close. PayPal dominates the market, and it is easy to see why. PayPal is easy to setup, it is a “trusted name,” and it is relatively inexpensive. (Only 2.20% + $0.30 per transaction for nonprofits.) BUT…does that mean that PayPal is the right solution for your church? Not necessarily. As with every market leader, PayPal is not without its share of shortcomings – some of which are especially concerning for a young church. Below are the five that immediately come to mind. 1) Poor customer support – PayPal is a massive company, and – like many massive companies – growth has come at the ex-

pense of personal service. When it comes to your giving page, a personal touch isn’t just nice, it’s a necessity. You can’t afford to have downtime or delayed responses to giver requests. 2) Not embeddable – By having your website’s “Donate” button redirect to a PayPal page, you lose both site traffic and branding every time one of your supporters gives online. 3) Fees – PayPal’s baseline fees are fairly reasonable, but there are additional charges for scheduled giving, monthly statements, multiple campaigns, and a host of other services which many organizations consider essential. (See #5.) 4) No direct deposit – Donations to PayPal do not go directly into your bank account. They go into your PayPal account and then must be manually moved to your bank account, after which they will take 3-4 days to arrive. This delay and extra step are not necessarily deal breakers, but why mess with them when they are so easily addressed by other online payment processors?

5) Limited services – PayPal does fine with simple, one-time transactions, but what about all the other services your church might need? What about mobile giving? What about displaying multiple campaigns on the same giving form? What about reporting and sending updates to your donors? When it comes to these vital activities, PayPal falls short. If you’re looking for a quick and easy solution, there’s nothing really “wrong” with PayPal. They provide an adequate service at a reasonable price, but – when so much more is available for roughly the same price – it is at least worth your time to comparison shop with a few other payment processors before going with PayPal.

Is there a better solution? As has hopefully been shown, the question church planters are faced with is not if they should explore online giving. It is when, and how they will do so. While the former is up to you, I have a suggestion for the latter. Full disclosure: when I am not writing for church planting magazines, I work a day job as the Business Development Manager for an online giving provider called Mogiv. In this capacity I have had the privilege to talk about online giving with hundreds of pastors across the country – including the man behind this magazine.

ferentiates it from the growing crowd of online donation processors on the Internet. It is also the thing that makes Mogiv an ideal solution for young and growing churches. Only with Mogiv do you get the stability of scheduled, online giving, and the convenience of text and email giving, all on the same platform, and without ANY of the startup fees, subscription fees, or contracts typically associated with these platforms. Mogiv was founded by a team with a background in both tech and ministry, and it was built with the unique needs of the church in mind. Below are just a few of the features Mogiv offers to help transform your memebers from passive listeners to active partners in ministry: • An elegant and easy online giving form that can be embedded directly onto your church’s website • Enable text and email giving in any dollar amount – great for impulse giving on Sunday morning and throughout the week! • Track donations in real-time through Mogiv’s robust reporting suite • Engage with your givers through text and email updates • Create and manage an unlimited number of giving campaigns

Mogiv is a web and mobile-based fundraising platform that exists to help nonprofit organiza• Have donations deposited directly into tions (especially churches) develop sustainable your account as they are received relationships with their supporters through on In a world that is rapidly becoming more line, text, and email giving. digital AND more mobile, Mogiv positions your Mogiv’s multi-channel approach is what difchurch to capitalize on BOTH of these grow-

ing trends. If you’re looking for a broad range of options and features on a shoestring budget, Mogiv is what you’ve been looking for. But don’t take my word for it! (I’ve already admitted to being biased.) Here is what two of our partner pastors are saying about us. More testimonials and more information about Mogiv can be found on mogiv.com, or by emailing me at [email protected]. “Mogiv makes giving easy for the diverse population we serve at the Rock. Our congregation can decide whether they want to text or email a gift from their seat during service, or set up monthly giving online. With Mogiv, there is no excuse for our attendees not to give!” – Miles McPherson, The Rock Church “As a new author, Pastor and President of a church planting network, I needed an online

giving solution. The other services I looked at were complex, and had a bunch of catches. The team at Mogiv was up front, simple, and down to earth.” – Peyton Jones, New Breed Church Planters Kent Woodyard was born in Wisconsin, raised in Oklahoma, and educated at Wheaton College before eventually landing in San Diego, CA. When he’s not talking to pastors about online and mobile giving, he enjoys being outside, drinking coffee, and watching Green Bay Packer football – sometimes all at once.

Connect with Kent:

When Is It Time To Quit?

W

inston Churchill roused the British to resolve to stand against the Nazi’s in WWII by giving a short speech at Harrow School. His speech was simple, and repeated the following lines:

“Never give up!”



“Never give up!”



“Never give up!”

That said, there are moments when even the Italian Stallion has his doubts and hurls his motorcycle helmet at his own statue in despair. After all, church planting is like climbing into the ring with the Prince of Darkness. Even the apostle Paul knew that the best we could hope to do in this conflict was “stand”. He tells Timothy not to abandon his post.

I’ve been there. Trust me. There was a dark day in Pillar Community Church when I almost As a church planting mentor, and network kicked the whole thing in. I’d woken up in a leader, I’m often asked when it’s time to throw in the towel. Often a church planter’s spouse is black fog of a funk. Rolling out of the wrong ready to throw the towel in for them, like Rocky side of the bed, I felt angry. Rotten. Pissed. There was no good reason, but when I rolled helplessly watching Apollo Creed getting puminto the parking lot, there were about 6 cars. My meled to death from the corner. Most church planters keep looking through bruised, bloodied, black thoughts turned upon my own mind like daggers and the sadistic cognitive cutting began. eyes swollen half-shut and shake our heads as I looked around thinking, “Where is everybody? the blows rain in. I bet they didn’t come. These people are more

committed to their football teams than they are to the church. They’d never fail to show up for a soccer game and let all their teammates down.” As my mood turned darker, I became angrier. To top it off, as I walked in, I realized I’d forgotten my notes. I peeled out of the parking lot and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that I was having a standard issue George Bailey “It’s a Not So Wonderful Life” kind of crisis.

Spurgeon was once asked if he’d ever considered quitting the ministry. “About twice a month” was his half-humorous response. To want to quit is normal. Over the years, I’ve learned that it’s like doing the Insanity workout, or running a marathon. There’s going to be a breaking point. You’re going to hit “the wall” and it’s at that time you dig deep, get over it, and push through in the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s what Paul wrote about to the Colossians when he said, “I want you to know how hard I struggle for you… “. Just before that he’d said “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that He powerfully works within me” (Col 1:29-2:1). Although there will be tremendous struggle, there will also be tremendous strength supplied to push past the pain.

When I got home, I walked into my study and saw my sermon sitting on the desk, but by this time, I didn’t even want to preach. I sat on the sofa and just looked across the room at it. “Screw them” I said out loud. Then to God, “I’m not going back. I quit. I told you I didn’t want to plant a church or be in ministry anymore. I’m done.” I sat there for almost 45 minutes. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the worship A few questions that must be asked before leaders kept playing nervously, wondering where you decide to abandon a church plant: I was. 1. Are you thinking emotively? To this day, I can’t say why I went back. I This could be simply due to poor health, just did. burn-out, or needing more sleep. Take a I suppose that deep inside, I knew that it rest, go on vacation, or a day away to be with wasn’t time to raise the white flag just yet. I still God. This will help you gain some perspechad people there who were committed to the tive and allow you to think logically and spirivision. We had a small core of people who had tually, rather than emotively. faith to see the invisible, a confidence in things that were not…yet. At that moment, the people 2. Is your desire to quit motivated about numbers? I’d inspired with faith that God was going to work, had more faith than I did. D.M. Lloyd If you answered yes, then to a large degree, Jones used to tell young ministers to be sure of your decision to quit is because the ministheir calling because there would come a day try is still about you. It’s about your success where it would be all that they had left. Everyand validation. If you only had a handful of thing else would be in tatters and frayed to the people, doesn’t that constitute a church? Bob core. It would be the confidence that God had Coy came to a point where the Spirit asked called them that would motivate them to keep him, “If this church only stays at 30 people going even though they could barely stand. because I called you to a small church, is that

okay with you?”. 3. Are you still called?

Did God change? Did his calling change? It won’t change until you’ve fulfilled the vision that he originally gave you. Are you willing to stay the course and endure hardship like a good soldier? If you’re still called, then your church plant is too legit to quit.

In the end, you quite when nobody has the vision, including you, and nobody is coming. By that, I mean, nobody. When things get small, slow, or stuck, that’s usually a time to combine prayer with action. The book of Acts demonstrates that the lulls in the early church were combined with the reset button being pressed by the familiar alternating cadence of prayer and evangelism. Wait…you were praying and evangelizing, right? If not, then you’ve been ignoring Church Planting 101 basics. Go back and read the book of Acts, because if you’re not praying and evangelizing, you’re not doing the two things that the book lays down as the essence of church planting. In that case, you’ve been doing something else…babysitting Christians maybe…throwing

Christian potlucks…having bible studies, etc. But don’t call it church planting. In those times where things get discouraging, we are often forced to focus back on Jesus, fall on our faces before Him and pray for His power, and then redouble our efforts in being the link in the chain of “How shall they hear…unless somebody goes?” (Romans 10:14-15). Until you’re doing that, then I repeat Sir Winston Churchill’s admonition to you, “Never give up! Never give up! Never give up!” This article is far from a comprehensive answer to a complex issue, but recently, the subject was discussed at length on the Church Planter Podcast. To listen, visit the Church Planter Podcast site and download Episode 11.

Peyton Jones is founding coach of New Breed Church Planting UK/USA. Jones received his MA Theology: Pastoral Studies from Wales Evangelical School of Theology and served as the evangelist for Lloyd-Jones’s legendary Sandfields church, Aberavon.

Connect with Peyton:

by Joshua Brindle

I

t was early March, 2012. My wife was ready to birth our fourth baby girl. I was taking over the pastor duties at our young and bustling little U.P. church (Upper Peninsula in Michigan). So much was going on: rumors, uneasiness, trepidation, insecurity, gossip, backbiting...wow, yeah it was a tough time. So, along with trying to find the Lord’s good, pleasing, and perfect will...and simultaneously filling out a 30+ page pastors examination, drafting new bylaws (whatever those are), and not go crazy in the process...the Lorddropped another, even wilder, idea in our lap. You wanna minister to your community, right? You wanna reach out with the love of Christ and show the world He loves them? You want to turn your world upside down and see revival, wasn’t that what you were praying for???

Yes. Ok, Jesus says, then do a sled dog race.

Uh....what? This can’t be the Lord. How past left-field is this?! Although, it is a bit exciting and adventurous (two things more Christians need), it has to be the craziest thing I have ever heard a small, transitioning church getting in-

volved with. This can’t be You, whatever...I’ll just put it out of my mind. Then it came back and my wife and I talked it over, while she was in birth and right after. Life is hectic and challenging, living by faith...let’s bring an utter logistical nightmare into our lives (NOT referring to baby #4). We better pray. And pray we did. Then I put out a fleece. Ok Father, if I send an email to the organizers of another race and they, some how, respond even a bit favorably, we will press on with this ridiculous venture. So we did, and they did. And we set up a meeting last April. We showed up, completely greenhorning it. They were nice, dropped a stack of fifty printed documents in our laps, tried to scare us off...and a challenge was presented. Then we left, swimming in possibilities.

And prayed.

Men, especially adventurous northern pioneers and their tireless wives, should always pray and not lose heart. And pray all the more, we sure did.

And, in praying, things were snapping. It didn’t matter. I was already in WAY over my head. Living the poor, church-mouse dream... living off of scraps from the Master’s table. We already had a HUGE old church basically given to us through a $137,500-miracle. We started a coffee shop/music venue...and then another one. The Spirit has been upon us through adultery and suicide and fastings and tribulation and backslidings and triumph and salvation. We trav Pray and pray and pray. Some answers startelled in a converted city bus across the nation ed to come. three times with nothing—NOTHING! Ok...I So, we planned some monthly brainstorm- don’t know Jesus...maybe this sled dog thing isn’t ing meetings. And, until somewhere around too crazy. October, we only had a few more than our Logo. Website. Blog. I am writing a book core group of six to ten, really-new-at-this, in there, or was, somewhere. Newspaper article. folks. I hesitated even sharing this venture with A little money started showing up, making tiny the church, thinking, “I can’t put these people dents in a $20,000 need. More people started through this..they already have to deal with a showing up to meetings. Chamber of Commerce bearded, spastic young pastor who’s cuckoo for backed us (thanks!). Appeared before the City the Holy Spirit and has huge holes in his ears.” Board—interesting looks all around. Appeared And transition and poverty and everything else. before the DDA—downtown development Anyway, I think at least half of the people I told authority—same looks. Then a second time, so about this thing just patted me on the shoulthey would know we were serious. Then came der and thought—in Christ’s love—that I was the County Board for use of the trail; that’s probably off on this one and it might just fizzle. where The Lord told me to throw in there that Honestly, I don’t blame them one bit. I seriI’m a pastor—could have framed those looks! ously was starting to think that I was losing grip Then DNR permits. Then some sponsors got on reality a bit. I mean, I started getting crazy on board. Then some more. By this time, mush“words” and Scriptures and thoughts about misers (the even crazier people who race sled dogs, sion trips to Alaska and building a sled dog kencare for them, and train them) started hitting nel along with our ministry...which already had up our Facebook and website with a barrage of a coffee shop (with another on the way), a requestions we could barely answer. They WERE cording studio, a community garden, a struggling excited nonetheless. discipleship program, and too much more. And a We continued to pray. It was all starting to be congregation of 30-40 adults. What in the world this scattered, rocket-boosted blur. At that point, was I thinking???!!! we had no idea what we were getting into.... I didn’t know...so I prayed. To be continued. We looked at everything, sought the Lord and His Word. Doors were opening. We called the organizers back. Invited them to our modest, little Iron River. Called a community meeting in May and asked a few progressive types (generous title for our town) to join us. Somewhere around 12 people showed up. Great presentation with videos from our friends from the Copperdog sled dog race. Lots of big eyes and cocked heads. Pray.

later meetings...we started hearing the true girth of the undertaking of what we were chewing on: In the middle of what became a twelve how many dogs, six or eight or ten? How long month process, my wife and I dove neck-deep will the trail be? The trail has to be well-groomed into the world of dog-sled racing. You see, to and smooth, not too dangerous, but fun and back up a bit, my wife had been enamored with within the average training distances of a decent the magic of mushing and dog driving since she group of seasoned dog drivers. What about a was a little kid and did a report on the subject stage race? What about mid-distance? Who will in school. I was “hooked” the first time I ever the race marshall be? How do you take care of watched the downtown start of the UP200 sled your sponsors? Do you know you need vets on dog race in Marquette, Michigan in 2004. This staff to take care of dogs? And on and on and actually was one of those adventuresome selling on. Could have been truly daunting. Could have points at which the Lord coaxed me into moving been.... to the Upper Peninsula in the first place. So on we prayed. Oh how I had no clue how this would Some of my deepest prayer concerns were come back to haunt me in the best of ways.... that God would bring us the right people and Anyway, back to the educating of an Indiput them in the right places. From sponsors to ana boy and his eager-beaver wife into all things mushers to vets to mentors, we needed key peo“mushing.” As the questions rolled in, as mushple that would not try to take the race over, yet ers called us, and even a couple attended our help us in our goals and encourage us along the

PART 2: Getting an Education.

way. I kept thinking, “This is a whole new ball game (with no ball, mind you) and these people don’t have to let us into their tight community... this has got to be the Lord, or it won’t work.” Looking back, it is truly awe-inspiring the people God pulled together to make the 2013 IronLine happen. From a witty, older musher with loads of pragmatism and level-headedness as Race Marshall, to a headstrong and confident, überorganized and borrowed Race Director as a logistics mentor, we seemed to have all the right pieces you could ever hope to have involved in a new race with wet-behind-the-ears organizers. We started getting phone calls from 20-year race vets who seemed to love to share knowledge and understanding and from mushers from all over the upper Midwest and Alaska (score!) who wanted to just chat about race formats and dogs and breeding and Iditarod and the fact that we were in community ministry and their families and more and more and more! I felt like we had just barely pushed on a door and it flew open and broke off the backside hinges and fell into a snow bank. Grace and I found ourselves in the middle of something. We drove four hours in September to head to the Midwest Sled Dog Symposium and then back to the same area in early January for the first race of the season north of Newberry, Michigan. There we met other organizers and mushers, both veterans and newer faces...some had already started to register for our race! It was surreal to say the least. I remember thinking, if this was God, we needed to jump in with all our feet. At that race, we tried dog handling, we talked to mushers about their training and their teams, we even watched the

Once Upon a Sled Dog Race....

little things: what kind of bibs do they have? How many dogs? How far? Why do they have two chutes? Who does the timing? How? Oh crap, what is that chain running across the start line? Why are they hooking into it with their snow hooks? We haven’t even thought of that!!! Floods. Of. New.Knowledge. And, at this point, you could be thinking... why would a pastor and his wife and four kids and a young-gun little church get caught up in all this? I mean, this could definitely be a tad off track, or really far off for that matter! We are/ were with you. I called my mentor and friend John Higgins and several other pastors and confidants and told them everything I had thought God was showing us about this stupid sled dog idea and basically dared them and baited them to shoot us down for being out of pocket and off the wrong side of our rockers. Note: I don’t sit in “rockers” much. You should be able to tell that from the loads of work I am outlining here! Darn it! Wouldn’t you know it, we couldn’t get any other leaders or pastors or friends to tell us not to do it. I really think they didn’t want any blood on their hands either way. I guess, what I felt Jesus telling me about why this was all happening boiled down to this: Christians should set the tone for culture in their communities. Far too long have we let the beer companies and everything pertaining to sex, drugs, and rock & roll tell us how we should live and have a good time. We have prayed and agonized and prayed some more that our town would not just rot in depression and obscurity, but have a revival and spring to life. It is depressed with suicide, rife with alcoholism, pregnant with destructive sexual practices, and murder on the family. Single moms and absent dads are everywhere; kids got

no hope. And then there’s the economy, very rough and very much struggling. People here needed something to hold on to, some identity and a chance to see things very differently. I was starting to believe that there was much more going on than just a fun and exciting event to promote “community vitality.” No, these were heaven-born seeds of revival, and this was just the beginning. So forward we marched...down the snowy trail. Remind me later to tell you about how important it is to have snow at a sled dog race....

Stay tuned for more.

PART 3: In the End, Snow is the Deciding Factor Back to the IronLine rundown, or runover...already in progress:

Mushers were already starting to hit up the website. They were even beginning to register in October! Our Facebook started buzzing with a community of people who’s names were now starting to become pretty familiar. My wife and I felt like we were starting to get a handle on some things. But then come the things that can make or break you, the nonnegotiables. Things like weather: you know, it takes a decent amount of snow to run a sled dog race. They don’t normally like running on rocks, gravel, ice or even a scant dusting of snow. The snow needs to be several inches deep, packed down, groomed and even have a few layers to it. Now, we live in the U.P. and, normally (I stress normally), we don’t have to mess with the idea of not having enough snow in January.

We started getting snow in mid to late No-

vember and then that melted off. We then got more in December and early January. Which looked good because our original race date (cough-cough) was set for January 18-19. Promotion, advertising, and all the rest. We had a Race Marshall coming from out of area, a seasoned and enthusiastic vet staff lined up, and a whole host of volunteers coming out of the woodwork—with some driving from three or four hours away!

book update and questions galore. It was kinda like starting all over again. Stress levels soared and emotions ran pretty high for a minute. A couple mushers had to back out and needed their registration money back. I kept telling people, when asked or not, that the only way I could describe the feeling was like training for the usual 26.2 mile marathon and being told it was two miles longer, a mile from the finish. Just. Outta. Breath....

To quote Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona, Yet, there is a peace that SURPASSES all un“...And then the roof caved in.” derstanding; it doesn’t come from understanding. I’ve spent eight or nine winters in the U.P. and I’ve seen close to -40 below and -20 for two weeks at a time, but I could NOT have been prepared for 40 ABOVE zero, not in January!!! That’s right, spring weather—WITH RAIN! In two days we lost almost all our snow. It looked like an icy, muddy mess and our trail crew was a tad flabbergasted. Some negativity crept up on us. A lot of emotion on my part. Had to keep my head up at the meetings. I know God told us to do this crazy race; how could He do this? I still want to believe He knows what He is doing. Of course, in hindsight, He most definitely did. But, obviously, with barely a week lead time (which is what you need to change the game plan), we had to postpone the race and pray for snow in three weeks.

It came to a point, when Satan had thrown all he could at us, and God had allowed uncertainty and foul, sneezy weather...that all the dust started to settle and questions halted. THERE WAS NOTHING MORE WE COULD DO. This whole kit and caboodle was no longer in our hands. We were mere stewards of Gondor and not the Rightful King of a sled dog race. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. The peace. The happy and hopeful helplessness. The thrill of knowing we had given this thing all we had and more and if the ship went down, what a glorious end it might be.

Total reliance sunk in.

So we waited and the snow began to fall. Everything turned into a beautiful painting, some sorta illustration from an old Jack Lon The God Audible. don story. The snowglobe after a good shaking. New radio add. New newspaper adds. Then the ensuing soufflé of pure whiteness that Phone call after phone call after email after Face- brought pristine trails and a waiting community

closer in. Peering through the glass had never been so anxious and expectant. We were all in awe really. It was like He knew what He was doing, the great Orchestrator, with His brilliance put on display.

community, the mayor, the area State Representative, and all the staff and volunteers. At one point, somewhere in the midst of big, barky trucks parking, vet checks and registration closing...I was manning two radios and my cell phone. What is the rule on this? How long is Prayers were indeed answered. All we needthe trail...really? do you have a dead dog policy? ed now was to watch it all come together for What!? Where is the Race Marshall? Why won’t race weekend.... the Trail Boss answer his phone? I don’t know!!! To be concluded.... There were ice fishing holes on the lake secPART 4: The Big Show or A Whirlwind tion. Some trail markers fell down. One musher missed the trail and ran his sled down the road of Thanks and hit himself in the head with his snow hook. I kept telling people, with the magical suc- Crap. Somebody else lost his temper! cess of everything unfolding before our eyes Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Too much! and the eyes of our now-snowy little burg, that it felt like being smack dab in the middle of God’s Hey Josh, there’s nothing you can do! plan for my entire life. I think I was right on that Hey Josh, have fun. point. Hey Josh, why didn’t you answer your At this time, IronLine race weekend was phone? such a blur. Question after question. Shaking hands. Checking in with the mushers. My back- Hey Josh...hey Josh...HEY JOSH!!! ground in concert logistics and “glad-handing” Looking back, I kind of like to ramp things came in quite handy—working the crowd, the up a bit and feed off of the crazy. But, honestly,

this huge Indiana Jones-sized ball was rolling and this race was gonna happen whether I did my job, went nuts, or walked home and took a nap (which I DIDN’T do). I was so, terribly overloaded and almost trying to stress and worry about the 1,192 logistical problems that were posed to me in person or babbled or barked over the radio. But, at some point on Friday night, I just went silent...peace ensued, and then everything just HAPPENED. (Insert special thanks to Todd Brassard, Lyle Ross, & many others far more level-headed than me). The peace that passes understanding. Things shouldn’t just happen, but, with a ton of good people and very decent planning, plus the Lord...it sorta-kinda —just did. So many kind and somewhat bewildered folks stopped, looked around, patted us all on the back and gave their congratulation or simply communicated thanks. Really, to sum up this oddball, whacky event for our little town, it became a whirlwind of thanks. People thanking us. Us thanking the mushers. The mushers thanking us and the volunteers. The city thanking us. Sponsors excited and also thankful. And us, starry eyed, thanking God as much as humanly possible. And what did I go and do? Well, at the prompting and setup of my loving wife and coconspirator Grace, we stopped at the end of the opening ceremonies and prayed—in front of 400+ people. We thanked Jesus for His help and for the snow, and for safety. Probably one of the most vulnerable moments I have had in a while, but it seemed like the whole night and the crowd and the mushers and the entire race just stood still for 80 seconds as we gave glory. And that’s

what it was all about. Later, we ended up having many conversations about our good hearts and willingness to open the event and the community up to prayer. Honestly, it couldn’t have gone better for me personally. The Lord is good—in the end—to those that trust in Him. And now, a struggling U.P. town has something to hang on to. People are excited. Christians are empowered to be honest and real with the world around them. And lastly, we had a blast, hooting and hollering and watching dogs run and feeling the pitch of everything that makes sled dog racing so, dare-I-say, magical. So, hey, thanks to all of you out there who were a part of this wild IronLine idea at any point. Whether musher or volunteer or supporter or sponsor or prayer warrior or our friends and community, thank you. And thank YOU, my Holy Father for Your faultless wisdom and Your heart full of fire and love for Iron River, Michigan.

Amen.

Joshua Brindle is a child of the Almighty, a husband to a phenomenal woman, father offour little girls, and a pastor/teacher at Tribe of Judah Ministries/Calvary Chapel Iron River in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In his years there, Josh has spent his time in full-time ministry in numerous ways: worship leading, discipleship, teaching, mobile music ministry, running a venue, starting a coffee shop, living semi-communal and directing a sled dog race. Josh’s style is one of the pioneer, an old-school revivalist heart met with a blast of the prophet’s trumpet.

Connect with Joshua:

W by Andy Steiger

hat’s a person? In both science and philosophy, defining “personhood” has been one of the most hotly debated questions throughout history. This is especially true in today’s culture! For example, is a person a biological machine - the product of time and chance, or are we something more than that? This is one of life’s most important questions because ultimately we’re asking, “Does my life have any meaning? The irony is, although we live in the information age we’ve never been more ignorant. Most of us don’t take the time to think, especially about life’s important questions. The meaning of life is foundational, yet many of us have trouble articulating its answer. Allow me to illustrate what I learned years ago about discovering life’s meaning with a picture my son drew. Coming home from work, I found one of his masterpieces taped to his bedroom door. It contained two large stick figures and two small ones. The two large stick figures were circled with a line through them. I could have guessed at what the picture meant, but I might have been wrong. I could have given it personal significance (subjective meaning) but I would be no closer to understanding it’s intended meaning (objective meaning). So, I did the one thing necessary to know the meaning of anything. I asked the author: my son. This is important to understand. Meaning is a quality people give things. Things don’t have meaning in and of themselves; persons give things meaning. This is true of all meaning - even my life. After a few questions, I learned the drawing was meant to keep mom and dad out during wrestling matches with his

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with A good example of objective meaning is all your strength.” And “Love your neighbor as language. You can view letters and words as yourself.” Simply put, the meaning of life is to art, such as in calligraphy, but we all understand Love God and People. We were made for relathat letters and words have intended meaning. tionships. More than an idea to be pondered, this Without understanding the meaning attached to is a way of life to be lived - and to be modeled, words, the markings have no significance and considering that we know what love is because the language can’t be read. If you’ve ever studied God first loved us (1 John 4:19). a foreign language you’ve experienced this but The Christian philosopher and mathemawhen someone reveals the meaning of the words tician Blaise Pascal said, “Only two kinds of the language comes alive. In the same way, life has meaning that needs to be revealed. Because people are reasonable: those who, knowing God, serve Him with their whole heart; and those we didn’t create ourselves, we don’t know the objective meaning or purpose we were made for. who, not knowing Him, seek Him with their whole heart.” Not surprisingly, any attempt to It’s a question for the author. understand the meaning of life naturally leads to Let’s assume that God is the author of life a search for the author of life – God. and that Christianity is correct in stating that Jesus is God. How then would Jesus answer this Andy Steiger is the Director of Apologetics question? Canada. For more info visit ApologeticsCanayounger brother. That wasn’t going to happen.

In Mark 12:28 a man asked Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment?” That’s equivalent to asking the author of life, “What’s the most important thing to know about your masterpiece? What’s its meaning?” Jesus gave a simple yet profound answer: first, life has only one author - God. He then continued with these words:

daConference.com and ThinkingSeries.com. The Thinking Series addresses five of the most asked questions today: “Challenging believers to think and thinkers to believe.”

PRESENTS:

ExclusiveInterview InterviewWith With Exclusive

By Peyton Jones

MARK CONVOY JOEL MEYER

MARK is Originally a New Yorker, Mark ConvoyHeplanted Bible JOELCONVOY MEYER planted Port Loyola Calvary Chapel in Belize. and his Flagler family live and

Fellowship 2006 war in Flagler Florida to with the New Church minister in in a virtual zone asBeach gangs continue murder thoseBreed he's sharing the Planting gospel Network. has a Masters degree in Communication and a Doctorate in Education. with, and He at times… right in front of them.

Connect Connectwith withMARK Joel: :

A Secret Strategy Used To Generate More Money For Church Plants

O

by Pete Mitchell

ne of the most overlooked ways of generating more sales and cash happens to also be one of the oldest forms of selling. That is, barter. Now I know what you’re asking. “What does this have to do with planting?” I’m glad you asked!

people understand investing strategies normally offered only to the über-wealthy. Years ago I worked as a benefits manager for a video game producer. One day I had a guy come in and pitch “non-qualified deferred comp” for our executives. Bottom line, it was a really powerful investment product.

It can have a lot to do with church planting When I became a financial planner I found and if you are bi-vocational with some sort of self-employed gig on the side, then this idea can myself offering this very same product to the average Joe. The big difference was Joe didn’t completely transform your income. believe that anything that good could be real. At Ain’t it funny how the higher up the food the same time, the executives that I worked with chain you go, the more that advanced markethad not only heard about it, but they either had ing, selling and even investing techniques are not it, or had it and wanted more. only known, but encouraged. Same thing happens in business. When In fact, as a financial planner (one of my you bounce around the word “barter,” people other businesses) I often find myself helping immediately start to think negatively about the

transaction you are proposing. Frankly, it’s a real cash, he was able to trade his services as a chiroshame, because this one idea makes Fortune 500 practor. companies billions in additional revenue every It isn’t free for him to see a client: he pays a year. fee based on everyone he sees, to the chiro he’s You can use barter in your church by offer- renting space from — but that fee is low coming your product or services, or a product/serpared to what he would pay otherwise. So he’s vice that you control, to others for their product putting up some of his money when he offers to or services. barter with the graphic designer — but it’s worth it. As an example, I’m publishing a book for a client of mine (I’ve got a publishing company There are many ways to barter. I like to as well). My client is a chiropractor. One of his use scrip, which as you may know is essentially clients is a graphic designer. When it came to de- a gift certificate. An example is when we created signing the cover, he was able to work out a deal Church Planter Magazine, it was an instant asset where the graphic designer did his cover design of advertising space that I can sell. and it didn’t cost him any immediate cash. Let’s say I sell a full-page ad for $2,000. If The graphic designer is a high level design- I’m talking to a retreat center about advertiser. He has made movie posters I’m sure you’ve ing their facilities in the magazine, but the price seen (A-list stuff like Tom Cruise movies). To is a stumbling block to them, they can pay with pay cash for this cover design would have run “soft dollars.” That is, they can pay me with scrip between $5k and $8k. Instead of paying that good for $2,000 worth of room rentals from

their retreat center. A typical hotel runs a hard cost of 30% of their billings. If this number is comparable at the retreat center, that ad would only cost them $600 in actual hard costs [electricity, cleaning the room, staffing the room service, etc. But wait! That’s not typically what happens in a hotel. People will spend more money at that hotel on other services that aren’t covered by the scrip, such as the restaurant. By bartering room rental, they get a client who will spend money at the restaurant … buy a doohickey in the gift shop … tip the bellhop … and tell their friends about the place they just stayed at … PLUS they get the advertising in our magazine that will bring in even more clients.

that they have. When it doesn’t sell, it’s lost money. Ad space never to be seen again. At a recent meeting I shared a solid way to turn that lost asset into cash in their pocket. Here it was: Publishers in their niche love to advertise because their niche has a much higher than average readership rate. $1,000 to a publisher isn’t even a drop in the bucket. Having a price point that low actually hurts them, but since they can’t track how many people listen to their radio show, and they don’t track how many people listen to their Podcast (a huge mistake by the way), they are stuck selling ad space cheap.

My suggestion was that they sell a 6-month advertising package for $6,000. Now when they But let’s not stop with this example! approach the publishers, they will be able to get I’m on the board of a non-profit. They some real attention. But to make the deal a slam have a weekly radio show, podcast, and a leading dunk, offer to accept trade of books as payment. website in their field. They offer advertising as a Here’s what happens with publishers. They package deal to get all three mediums for $1,000 print a bunch of books and almost never do a month. Because their strength isn’t selling, they they all sell. The result is a stockpile left over struggle with selling the inventory of ad space

that is going to be offered on the clearance table at the local bookstore — or the “Bargain Book” price on Amazon. Eventually the last ones left will be trashed. Shredded. Burned. Every publisher knows this is going to happen. EVERY. PUBLISHER. Accepting $6,000 worth of books, at full retail price, will get the attention of every publisher. Period. So here’s how it plays out. Let’s say the books retail for $15 each. That means that $6,000 in trade will equal 400 physical books. The publisher’s hard cost on 400 books is going to be around $600 (at $1.50 printing costs) and then anywhere from $200-$600 in royalty to the author. Considering those were books they were going to be thrown away anyway, this is a no brainer! Get six months of advertising to their target market for books that were going to hit the trash bin. Not to mention, they happily give

books away if it will help spark interest in the title. Now, you might be wondering, “But what are they going to do with 400 books?” Well, there’s a lot they can do with them. How about sell them on their website for half off the retail price? Remember, the ad space was going to be wasted if they didn’t sell it so getting half the money is great. They also run conferences where they sell … wait for it … books! They can sell these books at their conference for full retail if they wanted.

They could give the books away to listeners.

They could run a promotion and sell the books to their email list. They could offer the books to various venues that book their people to speak at as a premium for booking them.

Our church feeds the community every Sunday. We can offer the restaurant a tax deductable receipt for their donation of day-old bread. And since they have more ad space than Trust me when I tell you that our homeless they use, they can do this over and over again all members will love this donation! at the same time. So what we are able to do is to turn an as So how can you use this at church? set that the restaurant has to write off as a loss There are tons of ways! One of the biginto a tax deduction (based on the retail price gest tools that churches have, that almost all for- of the donation on the day it was donated.) We get about, is the tax deductible receipt that they are also able to formalize the donation of foods get to offer. and other gifts. Now the restaurant isn’t going to discard anything without talking to us first! With In a one square mile radius from our us, they get standing in the community (after all church plant, there are at least 20 eateries and grocery stores. These types of businesses always their name is still all over their bags and wraphave food that they have to throw away because pers) along with a tax deduction. Bottom line, they have an asset they can convert into cash.

it didn’t sell in time. The food is still good mind you, it’s just hit the “day-old” factor and therefore not suitable to sell at full retail.

Once we have the donated food, we can give it away, sell it for half price, or give it away for cash donation.

Another way that barter is used in the church and non-profit world, is by offering tax deductable receipts for cars. Even non-running cars are worth it. They owner gets a tax deduction (these deductions are more tricky - talk to your tax dude), you get an asset that at the very least can be sold as scrap. Do you realize how many people that don’t even attend your church would give you their old clunker because they want the tax deduction?

What I’ve found is that people are very receptive to barter when you approach them the right way. Once of the best ways that I’ve found was provided in the book No Cash, No Problem, a must read if you plan to take this idea any further. By simply changing how you communicate what you are proposing, from, “I would like to barter x for y.” to, “I would like to pay for x with y.” people get it.

The last thought I leave you with is this: What makes barter work is when you trade barter only works when you are talking with the full retail for full retail. That way both sides get owner. Salesmen do not want barter; they want to maximize their potential on the deal. your cash. No one but the owner will understand what you are offering. They are the ones that Barter is a system that most of the Fortune truly understand what the hard costs are that 500 use in some capacity. The IRS even has vidthey are selling and therefore, what it will actueos and tutorials explaining that because barter ally cost them. Now go, and make some trades! is a normal part of business, they have the forms ready for you to use to properly claim your income. (However, most of my barter trades result in no new taxes because I’ll trade for something that I use for my business, thus creating an income journal entry on one side of the ledger, just as a expense journal entry is being made on the other side of the ledger.)

Connect with Pete: